From Ndubusi Orji, Abuja
One of the key issues in the Legislative Agenda of the 10th House of Representatives is local government autonomy. The House in the document indicated its readiness to alter the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to recognize local government as an independent tier with full financial and operational autonomy.
Specifically, the Legislative Agenda, highlighted that the 10th House, will alter the Constitution “to recognize Local Government as an independent tier with full financial and operational autonomy.” According to the document, “this will be done in consultation with states; ensure that the roles and responsibilities of local governments are more clearly defined in the Constitution to prevent overlaps and conflicts with state governments.”
The Green chamber, also says it will amend the Constitution “to define the tenure of Local Government chairpersons and councillors to prevent undue interference,” amongst others.
Consequently, the issue of local government autonomy is also one of the major issues expected to be treated by the National Assembly in the ongoing review of 1999 Constitution.
The chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Akin Rotimi Jnr confirmed to Daily Sun that local government autonomy is one of the proposals before the Constitution Review Committee.
Rotimi stated that there are already private member bills seeking the alteration of the Constitution to provide for local government autonomy. According to him, “one of the priority areas in our Constitution review process is the local government autonomy.
As you know, there are a lot of members bills. A lot of members have sponsored bills on key constitutional reforms that also cover local government autonomy. We have also received memoranda extensively. “
Section 7( 1) of the 1999 Constitution provides that “the system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the government of every state shall, subject to Section 8 of this Constitution, ensure their existence under a law, which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils. “
However, since the inception of the present democratic dispensation, local governments have been under the stranglehold of state governors .
Regardless, since the expiration of the tenure of the first set of local government officials, in the fourth republic, in 2022, most governors, in connivance with their respective Houses of Assembly, have resorted to running the local government councils with caretaker committees.
Also, state houses of assembly across the country are known to make very ridiculous laws to cow council chairmen.
Apart from appointing and firing council bosses at will, the governors have been accused repeatedly of strangulating the councils financially, relying on Section 162( 6) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
Section 162 (6) stipulates that each state shall maintain a special account to be called “State Joint Local Government Account” into which shall be paid such allocations to the local government councils of the state from the Federation Account and from the Government of the state.
Analysts say the interference in the affairs of the local governments is responsible for the collapse of governance at the grassroots, with its attendant consequences on the polity.
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, sometime ago, said the collapse of the third tier of government is putting undue pressure on members of the legislature.
Gbajabiamila, who is also the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, stated that because of the failure of local government administration, constituents now look up to their representatives in parliament to cater for primary health care, basic education, provide critical social infrastructure amongst others.
According to him, “the collapse of local government administrations across the country has created a situation where constituents look to their legislative representatives to fill the gap and perform municipal functions in their various communities.
“It has become the legislator’s responsibility to cater to every constituency need, from primary healthcare to basic education services, from maintenance of markets to support for rural cooperatives and provision of critical social infrastructure.
“The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria did not envisage such a role for the legislator, and it did not make provisions for the legislator to perform in this capacity. Yet, political reality requires the legislator to meet these constituency demands by whatever means.”
A public affairs analyst, Jide Ojo, in recent interview with a national paper, sums the situation thus:
“The challenge with local government administration in Nigeria stems from a constitutional provision of Section 162, which provides for Joint State and Local Government Account. This section is the reason the governors don’t want to let go of their hold on the local government councils.”
Therefore, not a few see the push to grant financial and administrative autonomy to local government council as a welcome development. However, the question is how far can the parliament go in its quest to make the third tier of government autonomous?
This is not first time the parliament would be pushing for local government autonomy. The House had, in the 8th and 9th assembly, passed the bill for local government autonomy.
In the 8th assembly, the House made spirited efforts to alter Sections 7 and 162(6) of the Constitution to grant full financial and administration autonomy for the local government councils.
For instance, during voting on proposed alterations of the 1999 Constitution, in the 8th assembly, 281 members voted in favour of local government autonomy while 12 were against it, one member abstained.
Similarly, in the 9th assembly, the bill for alteration of Section 162(6) of 1999 Constitution so as to abrogate the states/ local government joint account was passed by 286 votes, while the bill for administrative autonomy for the council areas was supported by 258 members, while 15 members voted against it.
The proposed amendment to the Section had stipulated that each local government council in the country shall be expected to maintain a special account to be called “Local Government Council Allocation Account”, where all funds accruing to them from the Federation Account and from their respective state governments shall be paid into. The proposal also stated that no disbursement shall be made from the account except by a bye-law passed by the Local Government Legislative Council.
Prior to voting on the last Constitution alteration exercise, immediate past deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Idris Wase, while receiving a group of youths in his office, had expressed optimism that the parliament would succeed in its quest to ensure local government autonomy for the overall benefit of the country.
“I want to inform you what we are trying to do in the constitutional amendment is to make sure that the financial autonomy is there, the independence of the local government is there. We are trying to achieve that by all standards. In terms of the tenure, we are trying to take away from the states and take it back to INEC so that we have a uniform system in terms of the election.
“Everyone of us is aware that prior to 1999, we had a unified system and even after 1999, the tenure was three years. Their autonomy was apt and we had good governance. 60 percent of what we have as challenges in this country today will be sorted out if we have good governance at the local government level, “ Wase had stated.
Nevertheless, proposals could not get the support of the state houses of assembly, in the last Constitution review exercise.
Amidst fears by stakeholders that the current efforts to grant autonomy to local governments may be frustrated by state governors. Like in the past, Rotimi says the House is confident that the proposal will sail through this time. He explained that the federal legislature has decided to be more consultative in its approach.
According to him, “what we are doing differently this time around is to involve all stakeholders early into the process. What has caused failures of previous efforts is that after the House arrives at a certain number of recommendations, we now start courting the state Houses of Assembly or the governors and then we run into issues. But we are taking them along from the very beginning.
“You will see that when the Constitution Review Committee was launched, even the chairman of Conference of state assembly speakers, was in attendance. We had representative from the NGF. They are very crucial stakeholders to ensure that we harmonised position to ensure that we have a seamless process.”
The House spokesman added that, “the House is confident of following with the recommendations of Nigerians or what Nigerians want. The Constitution review process is not just about what we want either as individual members or the House as a whole or the Committee on Constitution Review.
“It is not really what we want. It is not about us to determine what the outcome will be. But what we assure Nigerians is that we are going to superintend over a process that will be consultative, so that we can arrive at a consensus of the desire of Nigerians as a whole.”
Analysts say the optimism of the House not withstanding, the success or failure of the current move to alter to Constitution to ensure local government autonomy, will depend largely to the disposition of the current crop of governors to the proposal.