WHO IS AFRAID OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY? Aug 24, 2013 The overwhelming vote by members of the House of Representatives for autonomy for the local government system in the proposed amendment to the 1999 Constitution has, once again, pitched the Nigerian people against the state governors, who are hell bent on maintaining the status quo and continue with their ‘business as usual’ antics with the allocation accruing to the third tier of government, writes SINA FADARE. Autonomy for the local government system in the country has generated a lot of debate in the public domain to the extent that the common man on the street is confused as to whom to believe and on whose interest have the leaders and people’s representatives at the National Assembly taken their respective stands. While the Senate rejected autonomy for the third tier of government during the debate and voting on the aspects of the constitution that needed to be reviewed, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly for the local councils’ autonomy in the proposed amendment to the constitution. However, those who have been milking the third tier of government in disguise are saying that the dream may not come to reality. It was the governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, before the storm that sent the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, into disarray, who made known to the Nigerian public the mindset of the 36 state governors on the agitation for autonomy for the local government councils. Without mincing words, Amaechi stated that the governors will continue to push against granting autonomy to the 774 local governments in the country, adding: “There is no country in the world that there are three federating units; there are only two all over the world. Why should you say that there must be a third federating unit in Nigeria?” According to him, the issue of local government autonomy should not be a constitutional issue. Though Amaechi denied that majority of the governors, if not all have overbearing influence on their states’ Houses of Assembly, and therefore they cannot be influenced to vote against granting autonomy for the local councils, yet political pundits are of the view that Amaechi and his co-travellers are economical with the truth on the issue. They hinged their belief on the fact that it was tales of woes since 1999 when there was joint account system where majority of the governors not only dole out salaries and few naira notes to the care taker committees which became the order of the day in most of the council area in the country, but decide what to do with the money with impunity and in most cases, the money developed wings. To the advocates of autonomy for the local government, if it is entrenched in the constitution, the council should be free from the grip of some greedy governors, who took the councils’ money at will without any tangible thing done with it at the end of the day. They based their premise on the fact that examples abound in the country of how the local council areas have been neglected for many years and the council chairmen, reduced to mere salary payers. Championing this cause is the Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, Abuja, Senator Smart Adeyemi, who insisted that the governors have short changed the council operators over the years with impunity. The former President of the Nigeria Union of Journalist, NUJ, vowed to spearhead nationwide protests to resist moves by state governors to oppose local governments’ autonomy, adding that “it was unconstitutional for the governors not to allow the councils to have autonomy in the management of their finances.” He therefore promised that “we will do everything possible to resist any attempt to stop the third tier of government from being entrenched in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “We the people will rise against that move. I will join other stakeholders, including Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, to go on a nationwide demonstration. Adeyemi argued that if the governors by error of omission or commission, fail to allow the three tiers of government to survive they will not sleep with their two eyes closed. Adeyemi’s request tallied with the demand of NULGE which insisted that autonomy for the councils is the only panacea to grassroots development. The workers who staged a protest in Abuja to make their point, condemned the idea of paying the local government allocation into states account, where the state determine what ends up in the hands of the councils. Equally worried about the conduit pipe, which the state and local council joint account has been turned to by the state governors, the National President of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON, Mr Nwabueze Okafor, cried to all well meaning Nigerians to come to their aids by condemning in strong term those who do not want autonomy for the local government system. Speaking to National Mirror, Okafor said that there is the need for stakeholders to give voice to the autonomy of the council areas, which he described as an arm of government that was easily accessed by the people. According to him, the autonomy, if allowed to see the light of the day, will assist the local governments to achieve the goal of the Vision 20-20-20, the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs 2015 target and the Subsidy Re-Investment Programme, SURE-P. His words: “The democratically-elected council members for all the 774 local government councils will bring about rapid development at the grassroots. I implore all governors running caretaker committee government at the council level to stop the act and conduct elections.” Speaking to National Mirror on the issue, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Imo state, Mr. Don Linus Onwukaike said that giving autonomy to the local government councils is like dragging the hands of development backward. Onwukaike said that it was embarrassing when most of the local governments cannot pay the teachers’ salaries, adding that with the type of development that is going on in the rural area in Imo State, nobody will want it to stop. However, there are discordant tunes on the local government autonomy recently from the APC as the party, which initially frowned against council autonomy after the deliberations of the governors on its stable in Lafia, Nasarawa State, suddenly explained that the party did not oppose it but want states Houses of Assembly to handle the matter. The APC in a statement issued by its interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, noted that the party did not condemn autonomy for the local councils, but only asked that such autonomy be determined by the states Houses of Assembly, rather than the National Assembly. According to him, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria gives the states Houses of Assembly the power to create local governments. Therefore, autonomy for local governments should be debated at the Houses of Assembly, not at the National Assembly. He added: “Secondly, giving control of the local governments to the Federal Government, one of the two federating units in a federalist system of government, will only result in the creation of a unitary government. “And thirdly, all local government administration must be democratically elected in a free and fair election, while chairmen and councillors must be accountable to those who elected them.” He argued that as a welfarist party, “we believe in accountability and abhor any system where any local government administration is not elected freely and fairly. The appointment of caretaker committees to run local governments is an aberration. This is our stand and it definitely does not represent an opposition to autonomy for local governments.” On the belief that some state governments appropriate funds meant for local governments, Mohammed pointed out that “the cure is not for the Federal Government to give money directly to the local governments, but for states and local governments to agree on how to ensure a judicious expenditure of local government funds. The partnership between states and local governments is very important for the overall welfare of the common man,” But political pundits do not subscribe to the argument of Mohammed, no matter how logical it might have sounded. They hinged their premise on the fact that some of the governors under the aegis of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, PGF, have expressed aversion to the idea of giving autonomy to local government and therefore they cannot now pretend to support the idea with a caveat. Not that alone, some of them are equally guilty of not conducting local government election in their domains and in the past they have operated joint accounting system where local government funds had been tampered with, with impunity. Could it be that the it was an attempt by the opposition not to play to the gallery, that made it denied abhorrence for autonomy for the local councils? Or could it be that political exigency has demanded the opposition to say what it said, since it was just finding its feet in the present political turf ? Whichever way it is viewed, it is certain that the common man on the street, the grassroots people and all the stakeholders are keenly watching the trend of the debate and may not likely fold their arms if the tide is turning against them. Also, how the impasse at the National Assembly is resolved will go a long way to determine the return of some members of the federal legislature, who had used the issue of autonomy for local government their campaign topic in 2011. BY SINA FADARE.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 23:16:07 +0000
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