How feasible is local government autonomy?
There have been arguments over whether Nigeria is practicing a federal system in theory or unitary system that was foisted on the country by the military. Autonomy for the local government administration that will lead to abrogation of the Joint State, Local Government Account has taken centre stage for some time now. Championing this course is the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE).
NULGE president comrade Ibrahim Khaleel told Daily Trust that the local government has a central role to play in grassroot development, stressing that there is a need to give local governments’ financial and administrative autonomy to achieve this.
NULGE’s effort to get full autonomy for local governments has been gathering momentum with supports from some governors, National Assembly members, civil society organizations and individuals.
Among the state governors who have declared public support for LGA autonomy is Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun. Amosun insisted that governors who are against it are those who plan to, illegally deduct money from the councils’ monthly allocation.
Speaking in the same vein, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State while throwing his weight behind the agitation for local government autonomy pointed out that any leader who desired the good of his people and the development of the grassroots as well as the nation at large must support local government autonomy.
But many state governors are still opposed to allow local governments to function independently as the third tier of government as reflected in the way and manner they hold on to their fiscal allocation and select local government chairmen at will without allowing the electorates to elect them as required by the constitution.
The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) said it is opposed to any move to grant autonomy to local governments. The body maintained that local councils are integral part of state governments. The forum’s argument is premised on the fact that, in all known federation, the federating units are usually the states and the centre. The governors argue that, in a federal system, there is no provision for local government as a federating partner and to talk of one is to engage in absurdity.
According to the NGF, the understanding over the years has been that in a true federalism, the issue relating to the creation, delineation and funding of local authorities is within the constitutional purview of states, which have political and judicial status that the local government do not have.
The forum argued that the states are federating units while the local governments are merely administrative units.
“These local governments so named are the beneficiaries of federal allocations, just like the states and the Federal Government. It is this existing arrangement that has made some to erroneously assume and even argue that the local governments are on the same level of autonomy as states and Federal Government,” says the forum.
A professor of Constitutional Law, Maxwell Gidado, at a forum recently, said the system of local government should be constituted in such a way that would reflect a truly tripartite level of government in the constitution.
He said, “Section 162(6) of the constitution should be amended to abolish state joint local government account to attain full financial autonomy.”
He said that revenue from the federation account should not be allocated to the unelected local government councils in Nigeria so as to serve as deterrent to others.
“In respect of unelected local government councils, it is illegal and unconstitutional to allocate revenue to them. The constitution should make specific provisions in respect to tenure of local government councils and the process of their election, removal, dissolution commensurate with what is obtainable for office of president and the governors,” he said.
As the clamour for LGA autonomy rages, the leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), and Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) recently declared full support for the call for local government autonomy being championed by NULGE.
The unions said after deliberations to address some concerns raised by NUT & MHWUN with respect to the ongoing agitation by NULGE for Local Government Autonomy in Nigeria, they have jointly agreed to support Local Government Autonomy in Nigeria.
The unions agreed that primary school education as the foundation of all forms of education deserves to be funded by the federal, state and local governments.
They noted that in order to ensure regular and timely payment of teachers’ salaries, entitlements and benefits, teachers’ salaries shall be a first line charge on the federation account.
Before now, primary school teachers under the auspices of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) have vehemently rejected LGA autonomy. Giving reasons for NUT decision not to be part of LG autonomy, Chairman, NUT FCT chapter, Comrade Knabayi recalled that between 1990 and 1994 when Primary Education came under the control of the local government, the school system witnessed poor funding and total neglect which led to industrial crises because the LG councils failed to give primary education the priority of place it deserved.
He regretted that “Despite an increase in allocation to the local government councils from the federation account by 5 percent to enable the Councils play their participatory role in assisting the state governments to pay the salaries of primary school teachers, the teachers were denied salaries for several months, in some cases for over 12 months.”
To add impetus to its decision not to be part of agitations for LGA autonomy, about 700 teachers, under the auspice of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) stormed the Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) recently in Abuja in peaceful protest, demanding to be left out of Local Government Autonomy.
According to Knabayi, another propelling factor for opting out of the autonomy is the “failure by the LG councils to contribute their mandatory 15 percent of the teachers’ emolument to the pension fund meant for the payment of the teachers’ pension and gratuities”, thereby “allowing the school system to deteriorate to the state of dysfunction and near collapse.”
The NUT chairman stated that the NUT was “not totally against Local Government Autonomy if that is what Nigerians believe would bring development to all nooks and crannies of the country, the union is concerned about the likelihood of scrapping the state Joint Local Government Account which would mean taking primary education back to the dark pre-1994 era.”
He however, decried a situation where “primary school teachers are currently been owed salaries for months in a number of states ostensibly due to the inability of the councils to provide the funds needed for payment of the salaries, thereby creating a situation of demoralization and hopelessness amongst the teachers.”
Experts are of the view “That Clauses 7, 8, 162 and any other clause in the 1999 Constitution that compromise the autonomy of local government should be deleted to give free and unfettered meaning to ‘autonomy’ and make local governments function as third-tier governments; Local governments shall be directly funded and tenure of their executive and legislature stated.”
President of Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel, contended that the local councils deserve to be given the opportunity to explore their potentialities without encumbrances from state governments.
NULGE has also taken to street protests in several states of the federation to drive home their demand for full autonomy for the 774 local government areas across the country.