A Glimmer of Hope for Grassroots Governance
Nseobong Okon-Ekong, James Sowole, Hammed Shittu, Seriki Adinoyi and Emmanuel Addeh write on the ripples over the federal government directive that funds meant for local governments should be disbursed by them directly
One of the major items in the proposed amendment of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended is the proposal for local government autonomy, particularly the issue of fiscal autonomy for local governments, allowing fund allocated to the 774 councils in the country, go directly into their accounts. This will abrogate the current situation that permits the third tier of government to run a joint account with the state governments. Often, this situation leaves the local governments at the mercy of state governors.
In the current practice, each state of the federation maintains a State Local Government Joint Account into which all moneys allocated to local governments in a particular state are remitted and from which state government distributes
to councils.
This practice some people argue, has turned local government into workers’ salaries paying organ as states release money only for payment of salaries while councils have to apply to state governors and government for any other money they want use for any project in their areas.
The practice has therefore, affected adversely the role of community and grassroots development that local government, which is the closest to the people ought to perform.
Many people see the operation of State Local Government Joint Account as one of the reasons that encourages states not to conduct local government election. This is because any appointee of any state government can be removed anytime he or she does anything contrary to the wishes of the governor.
When opportunity came therefore, for the amendment of the constitution in such a way that will give local government autonomy, it was vigorously pursued at the National Assembly. However, for an issue like that to get through, the approval of the two third of 36 State Houses of Assembly.
It was at this stage that the matter got stuck before preparation for the 2019 national elections took precedent over every other matter of general importance.
It therefore became interesting when the Federal Government recently took a decision that many people believed would rescue local government from misappropriation of their monies by state governments, which just gives them mainly fund to pay salaries.
The Federal Government had therefore opened a new topic for debate with the directive.
Since announcement of the directive that allocation to 774 local governments from the Federal Account Allocation and Fiscal Committee (FAAC) should go directly to councils from June this year, various stakeholders including former chairmen of councils have been reacting on the matter.
In Ondo State, a former Chairman of Akure South Local Government, Mr Afolabi Akinbowale, described the Federal Government’s directive as a welcome development.
Akinbowale, was the Chairman between 1999 and 2002, the Chairman of the Association of Local Government Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGON), Ondo State chapter and National Vice Chairman of the association in Nigeria.
The former chairman, was in office when funds were remitted directly into the account of local
governments.
Akinbowale said the current practice does not make local government accountable to the people because they are mostly appointed by state governors, who can remove them anytime.
He said, “During our time, we got our money directly and people were asking us questions about their monies. We were accountable to the people that elected us. It is different from the current practice where governors appoint chairmen, collect their monies in the name of State Joint Local Government Account (JAC), give them money to pay salaries and misappropriate the rest. The case is even worst at a time when a governor uses the local government money to build markets and took control of the market simply because the state added little part of the cost of building such markets. It is the responsibility of the local government to build markets, collect rates and perform other functions that are spelt out in the constitution. But states have taken over all these functions and have rendered local government redundant and irresponsible. With this new directive, local governments will have money to build markets, maintain them and execute projects through which they can generate money. I congratulate the local government system for the new action of the federal government. I do not support the practice cripples the local governments simply because the state is the one controlling their money, which make many states not to conduct election into local governments. With the new directive, people can hold local government chairmen accountable for their actions and inactions unlike when the governor is the Alpha and Omega.”
In the view of Constitutional Lawyer and Human Rights Activist, Dr Tunji Abayomi, more fundamental actions have to be taken beyond the prevailing sentiments. He insisted that the NFIU directive contravenes the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.
He said until the constitution is amended further to accommodate new provision, whatever is done by anybody or any government agency cannot stand.
Abayomi argued, “The first paragraph of the constitution states that the constitution is the supreme authority all over Nigeria. The provision of the constitution in Section 1 sub 5 is that any money accruing to the local government shall he paid to the state. So the Federal Government has no constitutional right to direct that money should be paid into the account of local government directly. What the constitution says therefore is that the amount due to local government councils in the federation account shall be allocated to the states for the benefit of their local government councils. It then provides that each state in Section 162 sub 6, that each state shall maintain a special account called State Joint Local Government Account to which all allocation to local government council for the local governments shall be paid. Any other account, for the payment of money to the local government instead of joint account provided for or created by Section 162 sub 6, will be inconsistent with the constitution and will amount to violation of the constitution and it will be wrongful. The Federal Government cannot surreptitiously or forcefully or use the strength of its position, do what the people have not constitutionally approved. Government, in democracy lives on the wishes of the people. If the Federal Government is unable to persuade the people and the legislative houses both at the federal and the state levels and are unable to amend the constitution to achieve the interest or objectives, it cannot unilaterally do it. It would amount to violation of the provision of the constitution.”
The legal practitioner also stated that the new directive also contravenes the provision of Section 7 of the constitution which places the funding and even existence of local government under the state House of Assembly.
“The problem is that regardless of interest of the federal government intention, it will amount to unlawful act and the violation of the constitution. The federal government cannot on the mark of goodwill take a decision that counteracts the provision of the constitution. It is not just about the goodwill it is about the good law. It is about the constitution and not the consensus of the federal government or even the state. That is why the whole essence of the provision of the constitution state clearly that the constitution shall be bidding on all authorities and laws. If I were the states, I will take the Federal Government to court for violation of the constitution,” he said.
For the president of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, Ondo State, Comrade Bola Taiwo, the directive of the federal government is a partial autonomy for the local government system. He raised an interesting angle about local governments had nothing accruing to them from the federation account.
“The only thing is that at the previous time when we experienced this type of thing, some local governments do have zero allocation and that is why the issue of Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) came in. But because most of the governors were tampering with local government money that is why the people are saying that it should be scrapped. If we should scrap JAAC, they must constitute a Caretaker Committee like a Technical Committee that will look into the allocation immediately the allocation get to the state before transferring to individual local governments so that any local that does not have money enough to pay its workers, can be taken of by other councils. Another issue is that teachers salaries, should be taken into consideration. Teachers salaries must be made first charge so that there would be no problem. The issue of paying the primary school teachers must not be exclusively for the local government. It is supposed to be a tripartite payment-the federal, the state and the local governments. The federal and state government- should contribute to the payment of primary school teachers. That must be taken into consideration. The third issue is that of sub -deduction to local government commission, pension board, local government loans board must be taken into consideration. If all these are not taken into consideration, the local government pension board will not function again, the loans board will not function, the training department of local government commission will also not function again. That is why we need this Technical Committee. The technical committee will meet immediately after FAAC, and discuss all the highlighted issues. If there is no JAAC, there must be technical committee so that most of these big local government will not have zero allocation. There must be a way of harmonising things together, if not, things will go other way,” Taiwo stated.
There have been stringent calls for the federal government run a true federation, where the federating units would maintain autonomy on certain matters, including on finances and policing among others. But so much power has been concentrated in the centre. Financial autonomy is at the core of a federal system of government, allowing the federating units to remain financially independent from the other, while remaining interdependent.
Nigeria’s current monthly revenue sharing formula states that the federal government takes the biggest share of 52.68 per cent from the federation account. The 36 states take 26.72 per cent, while the balance of 20.60 per cent is handed to the 774 local governments. NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com