Most Nigerians either aren’t bothered or simply don’t know the chairman or councillor of their local government area. It’s a measure of political apathy in the country. Cities, communities and towns across the 36 states of the country are grouped into 774 local government areas. That’s 1,548 people with executive powers, and a budget, who are better placed to respond immediately to the needs of the people. In reality, it’s thousands of elected (appointed or imposed) official ghost workers.
Since these absentee executives are unknown, they don’t get called when roads need to be fixed, street lights repaired or health centres supplied with drugs; the state governor or the president is blamed. A do-it-yourself or manage-it-like-that mentality is the default response.
Several reasons may explain the pervasive attitude of never expecting anything from government (except petrol subsidy, for those in Lagos and Abuja). It may be a carryover habit learned under military rule; the soldier come; soldier go style of the military does not appreciate that some issues are better solved at local levels.
Freedom, speed, action, initiative – the principle of subsidiarity is applied in many fields from government to manage. It’s a form of decentralisation whereby the central authority doesn’t perform tasks better done at the local level. In the US, the principle of States’ Rights is guaranteed by the constitution. The adoption of the federal system of democracy was supposed to bring government closer to the people. But the way it has been practised in over 20 years government is a stranger, aloof and impersonal.
Alexis Tocqueville in Democracy in America notes that “Decentralisation has, not only an administrative value but also a civic dimension since it increases the opportunities for citizens to take interest in public affairs; it makes them get accustomed to using freedom. And from the accumulation of these local, active, pernickety freedoms, is born the most efficient counterweight against the claims of the central government, even if it were supported by an impersonal, collective will.”
One other reason could be because the majority of those living in the LGA don’t have skin in the game, that is, there’s no personal financial implications involved in who becomes councillor (oil revenues and company tax go to the federal government while states collect taxes on salaries and other levies). But a review of federal allocations for 2019 shows one truth that many citizens often overlook.
The 36 states and 774 local governments of the country get a significant chunk of the money disbursed to the three tiers of government. Last year, was shared among the states and LGAs came N1.365 trillion between January and October, based on data compiled by BudgIT, a nongovernmental organisation. According to it, “Local governments in Nigeria receive 20.6 percent of the revenue generated by the Nigerian government amounting to billions of Naira monthly. However, there is largely no account to show how these monies are spent.”
Add value-added tax and revenues each state generates internally to this mix and it is humungous sums of money going to the states.
More importantly, a recent court ruling has recognised the autonomy of local governments in Nigeria. It empowers them to conduct independent elections and run their accounts. These are enough reasons to look less to Alausa or Aso Rock when the public schools in your local government area has no windows, blackboards or teachers.
Citizens must demand accountability from their LGAs. They must ask what they have done with the huge resources at their disposal. Without an engaged civic society, their budgets won’t be scrutinised? No one will demand that the budgets be on accessible websites so citizens can monitor them.
