I belong to the school of thought that believes that the problem of Nigeria is not with our statutes, constitutions, or laws, but with us as a people. There is no law, no matter how well intended it may be and no matter how broad and encompassing it may be, our crooked nature would always see us seek ways of compromising, circumventing or breaching them. Introduce any law to Nigeria it will be given different interpretations to suit the whims and caprices of the rich and powerful. It would be abused to suit the highest bidder or the man who pays the piper.
Everyone knows that the 1999 Constitution recognises that there are three-tiers of government, i.e, the federal, state and local governments, but in practice that has not happened and it will never happen as long as the fundamental issues around how these politicians get to office is not addressed.
So, as the Supreme Court declared last Thursday, that it is unconstitutional for state governors to hold funds allocated for local government administrations, and seeing the excitement of those who hailed the verdict, one would wonder if they all had forgotten that this is Nigeria and that beautiful laws or judicial pronouncements in themselves cannot work anywhere unless the operators want them to work.
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The seven-man panel, in the judgment delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, declared that the 774 local government councils in the country should manage their funds themselves.
The apex court held that the power of the government is portioned into three arms of government, the federal, the state and the local government.
The court further declared that a state government has no power to appoint a caretaker committee and a local government council is only recognisable with a democratically elected government.
“A democratically elected local government is sacrosanct and non-negotiable,” the court said.
The court ruled that state governments are perpetuating a dangerous trend by refusing to allow democratically elected local government councils to function, instead appointing their loyalists who can only be removed by them
The Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), had filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Federal Government, seeking to grant full autonomy and direct funding to all 774 local government councils.
The AGF, in the suit predicated on 27 grounds, urged the apex court to issue an order prohibiting state governors from unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders.
The FG further contended that Nigeria as a federation, is a creation of the 1999 Constitution with the President as the Head of the Federal Executive arm of the Federation and has sworn to uphold and give effect to the provisions of the Constitution.
The 36 state governments, through their attorneys general, filed a counterclaim, arguing that the Supreme Court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case.
That verdict for many is long in coming, but what is it really that they expect, that the state governors at whose pleasures these local government chairmen are in office, would just accept that judgement in good faith and allow their proteges, stooges, acolytes or sycophants who were only put in office by the governors for one purpose: serve them, to suddenly begin to act independently as pronounced by the Supreme Court? Or, are we to believe that the governors would suddenly begin to behave differently? If you believe that you would believe anything.
First, our elections do not reflect the wishes of the electorate. The governors who themselves are encumbered by the fact that they are in office at the behest of a godfather, would also ensure that the local government chairmen appointed or selected through a spurious or sham election conducted by State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECs), remain lame ducks who cannot act or take decisions without first taking recourse to them. Whenever the governors are not satisfied with situations at that level they simply dissolve the local governments and put in place caretaker committees for as long as they wish.
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Today, about 22 of the 36 states’ local governments are under caretaker committees.
When eventually, the governors decide to conduct local governments elections, their SIECs simply read out the lists given to them by the governors as victors. Even in rare circumstances where opposition parties were believed to have won LG polls, they never got to that office.
The joint account for the states as prescribed by the constitution is for joint operation by both tiers of government, but in practice the governors are in total control. The LGs only get handouts from the governors as allocations from the federation account. The LGs in turn share these money with council officers and they all return home until the next allocation comes in.
Therefore all most local government chairmen do is organise parties in their councils where all manner of heavily-bleached party freaks come to display fashion and flashy cars.
Meanwhile, schools, roads and other infrastructure under local governments are in a completely dilapidated state. All major roads leading to these local government areas are in deplorable conditions.
Commendable as the move by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government to address the unfortunate situation of governance at that level may be, it is note-worthy that Tinubu, who as governor was one of the biggest beneficiaries of this skewed arrangement is now the protagonist of its abolition. This calls for commendation, more like saying do as I say and not as I do.
That said, is Tinubu deserving of praise? Absolutely, but beyond mere legislation and statutory provisions how practically implementable would that be? As long as the local government chairmen remained tied to the apron strings of the governors, they cannot assert their authority on their constitutionally-guaranteed roles. They cannot even look the governors in the eye and raise objections. A gentleman tried it in Ogun State and had his fingers burnt, and the rest as they say is now history.
Again, there have been calls for the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) to begin to conduct local government polls. To do that there must be constitutional provisions to be amended.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), recently admitted as much when he said the commission has no constitutional power to conduct local council elections except in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
But pray, is INEC itself any better? The reason our elections have remained hotly contested, disputed and deadly is because INEC has also failed woefully in conducting elections to reflect the will of the people.
INEC and its precursors are major players in the corruption that has stalled our growth as a nation. You may argue that they are a shade better than the SIECs, but adding local government polls to their job lists would also not solve the problem either.
You may also want to argue that INEC officials are part of the larger society so they are not immune from the general malaise. However, countries where their electoral umpires have conducted themselves with integrity, are they populated by saints alone?
We must come to that point where some people must insist on doing the right thing no matter the cost, because politicians will always be politicians.
Until elected officials begin to see themselves as deriving their authority from the electorate and so are answerable to them, we will just be moving in circles.
Since President Tinubu has started this journey to righting the wrongs, he must be prepared to go the whole hog. We must be prepared to see to the fact that true federalism is practiced by ultimately reducing the too much attraction given to the centre at the expense of the federating units. A unitary structure masquerading as a federation cannot allow for the tenets of democracy to evolve and take foothold in the country
