I’ll disappoint you if you ask me to name my local government chairman. I don’t know his name. Neither do I know the councilor who represents my ward. And I’m pretty sure millions of Nigerians are just lost like me on this issue. If these personalities actually exist, I don’t know how they got into office,because I cannot recall anyone canvassing for my vote to represent me at the local government over the years. I’m not even sure if anyone is representing me at the local government. If anyone is holding the positions mentioned above, he probably got the job at the benevolence of the governor of my state. The only contact I’ve had with the Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government since I relocated to Sango-Ota, Ogun State, 11 years ago, was when a man came to my house, requesting for payment of tenement rate a few years back. As a law-abiding citizen and one who knows that it is the business of the local government to collect the levy, I quickly paid. He showed up the next year and I paid again. When the same man who tendered some papers to prove he was acting as agent of the local government came the third year, I became reluctant to pay, because I didn’t see the reason. I hadn’t witnessed any local government presence around me. None at all. But after some persuasion, I still paid, but with the condition that the agent should not bother to visit me the following year, if he would not be able to point at any project or programme executed  by the local government in my ward. The agent has stopped coming for three years now.
But you would be wrong to assume I don’t pay rates or levies in my community. I do. I pay monthly to the Community Development Association (CDA) for security guards who watch over us. I’m encouraged to pay the security levy as I see the guards in action almost everyday when returning home late in the night from office. We contributed to buy electricity transformer, enduring almost a year of darkness when the old transformer could no longer serve the community. Occasionally, we contribute to buy filling sand to patch bad spots to keep our roads in good shape. We also build drainages. I know my CDA chairman. Community meetings are held monthly. A representative of the CDA goes round the community early morning on a meeting day with a megaphone, urging residents to attend and warning that electricity would be disconnected from homes of residents who fail to pay the security levy. A representative from my house attends the CDA meeting. My CDA is the local government I know. For me, the local government, which is the third tier of government  in Nigeria has not made any meaningful impact or added value to the lives of citizens. And there are 774 local government areas (LGAs) in the country. Appointed or elected local government officers and staff draw salaries from the federation account. But take a look at the functions of local governments spelt out in the Constitution and assess whether they are fulfilling these responsibilities or whether some or all have not been usurped by state governments, leaving the local councils as empty shells and drainpipes:
a. Consideration and making of recommendations to the state commission on economic planning or any similar body on economic development of the state, particularly in so far as the area of authority of the council and of the state are affected;
b. Collection of rates, and radio and television licenses;
c. Establishment and maintenance of cemeteries, burial grounds and homes for the destitute or infirm;
d. Licensing of bicycles, trucks (other than mechanically propelled trucks), canoes, wheel barrows and carts;
e. Establishment, maintenance and regulation of markets, motor parks and public conveniences;
f. Construction and maintenance of roads, streets, drains and other public highways, parks, open spaces, or such public facilities as may be prescribed from time to time by the House of Assembly of a State;
g. Naming of roads and streets and numbering of houses;
h. Provision and maintenance of public conveniences and refuse disposal;
i. Registration of births, deaths and marriages;
j. Assessment of privately-owned houses or tenements for the purpose of levying such rates as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of a State; and,
k. Control and regulation of:
i. outdoor advertising and hoarding,
ii. movement and keeping of pets of all descriptions,
iii. shops and kiosks,
iv. restaurants and other places for sale of food to the public, and
v. laundries.
The local government councils also work hand-in-hand with state governments on issues such as:
a. the provision and maintenance of primary education;
b. the development of agriculture and natural resources, other than the exploitation of minerals, and
c. the provision and maintenance of health services.
I have always believed that any change that will make a meaningful impact in the lives of Nigerians must begin from the grassroots. And the local government by virtue of the country’s Constitution is at the grassroots. Unfortunately, the Buhari administration, which adopted change as its mantra appears to have no plans for the grassroots. Little wonder then that President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to take all the pressures and blames for not meeting the yearnings of the citizens. Local governments are almost moribund, state governments are wobbling along. And so, all the attention is on the President and his ministers. Nigerians have almost erased it from their subconscious that local government chairmen and councilors were elected or appointed to serve. How many Nigerians know that even the local government chairman draws security vote?
A local government should be the chief facilitator of socio-economic development at the grassroots. This is more so, as the Constitution entrusts it with the responsibility of developing agriculture in conjunction with the state governments. Why is the Federal Government that statutorily has no right to land in the country acting as if it can ensure agricultural revolution without the active participation of the local government, which constitutional role it is to develop agriculture.
I have argued and still maintain the position that for the Buhari administration, Nigerians would only measure performance, not just by what the Federal Government does in four or eight years, but the choices that it does not take. Reforming the local government may be one of the ways this government could make the electorate feel the impact of government but it may be one of the choices to forgo.
President Buhari himself last Thursday noted that the relationship between government at all levels was problematic. While receiving the leadership of the Association of Local Governments in Nigeria (ALGON), the president lamented that, “The relationship between the three tiers of government is not a very nice one, especially that between the local governments and the states.
“The states feel like they own the local governments if they are of the same party. It is worse if they are not. This is a very serious constitutional problem and unless there is absolute clarity and transparency, the relationship will continue to be exploited against the interest of the ordinary people of the country.”
However, rather than take the lead in finding a solution to the problem, the president merely advised that ALGON executives should hold consultations with their people and lawyers and  sponsor a bill that would seek constitutional amendment to free the councils from the stranglehold of the states.
Rather than promise to support ALGON, how I wish President Buhari would lead the change in reforming the local governments so that they can effectively fulfil their constitutional roles and take the pressure off the almighty federal government.

Related News