The recent Supreme Court ruling on local government fiscal autonomy may have been cheered and jeered on equal measures. But as it is always said, the taste of the pudding is in the eating. Again, is Nigeria really winning the war against the economic saboteurs in the Niger Delta, or are the tough talks just mere grandstanding?
LG autonomy: Need to sustain the deliverance song
Several years ago, a certain race that had been in bondage in old Egypt was delivered from the oppressive powers of the then-Pharoah.
The deliverance came after a series of events that took place. It was so dramatic that it appeared to the pharaoh as if he were in a trance.
He decided to pursue the people to bring them back. He was not successful. He did not only lose his life; he lost men and his chariots that were swallowed up by the angry Red Sea.
But stories had it that almost all the people who got that divine deliverance from the Pharaoh’s bondage later perished in the wilderness by their own evil deeds and dangerous habits.
Since Thursday, July 4, 2024, when the Supreme Court of Nigeria gave a landmark judgement granting fiscal autonomy to the local government administration, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) has been very uncomfortable. The legal pronunciation seemed to have hit them like a thunderbolt. The reason is obvious.
For many years, the local governments had been treated as an appendage to the state government. The state governors decided what to release to them to work since the money was put directly under the control of the governors.
In most cases, there was little or no infrastructure development project by the local government council. It was so bad that the state also paid the salaries of workers at that level.
Whatever happened or did not happen at the local government was at the instance of the state governors.
Although they claim to organise elections to fill the local government seats, such elections were shambolic—a fulfilment of all righteousness as they were mere coronations of governors’ choices.
The governors chose who should contest and ordered the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) to do their bidding.
While this arrangement lasted, many Nigerians did not show interest in the elections and never participated. Many people did not know who their local government chairmen were.
“The legal pronunciation seemed to have hit them like a thunderbolt.”
The raging political impasse in Rivers State today is chiefly a battle for the control of the local government administrations. Since the tenure of the last chairmen ended on June 17, 2024,.
It is curious that many state governments are still gearing up to conduct local government elections despite the judgement.
The thinking of many Nigerians is that the Supreme Court’s pronouncement must have ended every iota of the state government’s influence over the local government administration.
The SIEC has over the years been used to achieve the personal and political interests of governors. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should now step in to begin to conduct council elections. The INEC also must be transparent to restore confidence in that tier of government.
The argument being bandied around in some quarters that people are not interested in local government administrations is sheer bunkum. Citizens did not show interest simply because the councils were emasculated by the state government, so people did not waste their time participating in elections that had predetermined outcomes.
But with the new order, it is expected that there will be a serious change and that people will begin to show interest in voting in council elections.
The judgement and the expected change in the narrative would encourage credible individuals to begin to show interest in contesting elections at that level.
There are talks on the street that the local governments would struggle if the state governments pulled out, but the fact remains that the greatest obstacle and drawback that the councils have experienced since 1999 has been the fiendish influence of governors over the local government chairmen and the wholesale appropriation of whatever belonged to the councils.
As “necessity is the mother of invention,” the councils would now begin to take on the challenge of either swimming or sinking. It is expected that they will begin to mimic what happens at the state level, in terms of drawing their own budget and passing it to their councillors for approval. It also means that local governments can seek loans to execute projects the way federal and state governors do.
It is naïve not to acknowledge the fact that the ruling would have also made elections at the local government level very competitive. Many more people, including moneybags, would begin to struggle for positions. But the voting masses must wear their thinking caps.
Those who would have the opportunity to lead at that level must know that a lot is expected of them. All the failures of the government, whether federal or state, are manifest at the local level.
Whether it is the absence of portable water, primary health care, access roads, primary education, or even food insecurity, they are traceable to the failure of the local government administration.
It would be disastrous for the local governments to return to the bondage of yesteryear after they have sung the song of deliverance from the Pharaoh’s bondage.
