The National Assembly’s upper chamber approved a bill in March 2022 giving local government units complete financial and administrative autonomy.
The measure aimed to modify the constitution to eliminate the state joint local government account and establish a special account into which all federation account allocations owed to local government councils would be deposited.
According to the bill, all allocations will be deposited into a Local Government Allocation Account, which each local government council is required to establish and keep up to date.
The Senate took this action to put an end to the mischievous behavior of certain governors who have severely hampered the operations of the closest government to the people out of self-interest.
Federal, state, and local governments are the three levels of government that receive monies from the federal government, and this is explicitly stated in Section 162 of the 1999 constitution. The state is only a conduit via which the funds are sent to the LGs, even though it also stipulates that any money owed to them must be paid through the state.
The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) of the federal government established a deadline in 2019 for the directive’s take-off date, which will guarantee that local government allocations are deposited directly into their respective bank accounts. State governors fiercely protested this decision.
President Muhammadu Buhari verbally abused state governors on December 1, 2022, accusing them of unlawfully mismanaging funds allocated to local governments.
Speaking on the matter, Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president of Nigeria and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, described how governors exploited constitutional provisions to prevent the direct distribution of monies to local governments. Abubakar served as vice president of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007.
In terms of local government funding, he continued, Nigeria has a “fundamental flaw in our legislation” that needs to be corrected.
Nigerian local government units have consistently lost their authority to governors in various states.
Even worse, some governors remove local government executives from office because the officials were chosen by the electorate.
According to findings, the majority of state administrations essentially manage local government operations, making council members useless.
Senate must end governors’ unchecked power
In the meantime, state governors’ impunity for interfering in local government matters is already being challenged by the current 10th Senate, which is led by Godswill Akpabio, the red chamber’s speaker.
First, the Senate is requesting that the federal government cease providing statutory funding to local government councils with non-democratically elected chairpersons.
While voicing his frustration, Adams Oshiomhole, APC, Edo North, pointed out that roughly sixteen state governors now have caretaker committees in place to manage their LGAs.
The most recent action by the senate was in response to a motion made by Senator Abba Moro, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and representative for Benue South. Senator Moro believes that states that lack elected local government officials ought to be prohibited from receiving LG funding.
Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State was specifically mentioned by Moro as one of the governors in charge of local government districts having caretaker committees.
NULGE communicates
The National Union of Local Government Employees’ National President, NULGE Comrade Akeem Ambali, called the current state of the closest government to the people “pathetic” when he was contacted for comment.
Local government autonomy, according to Mr. Ambali, is the answer. However, he emphasized that certain state governors, including Kayode Fayemi, the former governor of Ekiti state, have been impeding the actualization of the autonomy.
The local government autonomy was authorized by the 9th National Assembly, but we had difficulties since the governors’ forum created a barrier to implementing this.
“There seemed to be a plot headed by the former governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, who publicly campaigned against the local government autonomy, even though states like Ogun, Delta, Edo, Kogi, Anambra, and a few others passed the local government autonomy bill.
And it’s common knowledge that meaningful and desirable development in Nigeria cannot be achieved in the absence of a functioning local government.
The poorest of the poor live in local government, where there are no motorized highways, banditry is rampant, and there is no functional local government administration. This is why Nigeria looks to be drifting into collapse.
“The root cause of all these must be tackled from the conduct of local government elections, which is why we salute the courage of the National Assembly which is now looking at how to amend the regulation to ensure that local government elections are conducted by INEC,” the NULGE chief emphasized in response to a question about what could be done to salvage the situation.
“At the moment, the local government is appointing and crowning political jobbers who are the cronies of the state’s governors.
Therefore, we need to make sure that INEC oversees the elections for LG posts.
“Once more, we have to make sure that local governments across receive direct money. The money must no longer pass via the state governments and instead go straight from the federal government to the local government’s account.
Ambali also urged President Bola Tinubu to give local government development more thought and assistance.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must also take a close look at important local government areas like infrastructure and offer assistance by supplying them with tools like tractors and graders, among other machinery.”
Additionally, the NULGE President requested that Senator Moro’s motion, which halts allocation to states lacking elected local government officials, be put into effect right away.
“The state governors’ undemocratic attempt to continuously undermine local government must end.
For that reason, we agree with the National Assembly’s declaration that funding should not be given to any state that does not successfully democratize through local government elections.
“The federal government ought to confiscate the funds intended for the local governments in that state.
In violation of a ruling by the Supreme Court, jobbers, also known as caretaker committees and transition committees, preside over more than 50% of local governments in Nigeria.
“The majority of states participate in the embezzlement of local government finances, except two: Rivers State (governed by Governor Wike) and Jigawa State (governed by Governor Badaru).
“The method is different. Some allow up to 20 or 30 percent to LGs, keeping the remaining 70 percent, and this has persisted to this day.
“Even the governors want to apply executive order 10. To guarantee that funds go straight to local government and that any state that failed to completely democratize should not be supported, we think that amending the constitution is the best course of action for the time being.