Democratising LG administration

On the one hand is an advocacy section that champions a new wave of reforms to bring the 774 Local Government Councils in the country to global best-fit standards, in order for them to perform their constitutionally assigned functions. This group identifies a major drawback to the optimal performance of the local governments as the […]

On the one hand is an advocacy section that champions a new wave of reforms to bring the 774 Local Government Councils in the country to global best-fit standards, in order for them to perform their constitutionally assigned functions. This group identifies a major drawback to the optimal performance of the local governments as the overreaching influence of state governors who consider the councils as annexes of the governor’s office.
On the other hand, questions over the abysmally low performance of most of the councils have driven a groundswell of resentment against them, and this is crystallising into a consideration that they should be dissolved and their functions taken over by the states. Not surprisingly, this view enjoys the support of state governors who have spared no effort to squash any move towards granting councils the autonomy they need to operate optimally. Many state governors have in fact taken steps that have compromised the fortunes of local government councils in their domains by not conducting elections into vacant local government offices, and running these with appointed agents.
The framers of the Nigerian Constitution did not envisage that the local government system should be a facility without portfolio. The Fourth Schedule of the Constitution spells out a minimalist profile of the basic functions of the system. For clarification, these functions can best be executed by grassroots governments, which the councils represent, at least in principle. However, in their failure to deliver on those services, which is a function of the suffocating control by state governors, the councils through no fault of theirs are seen by the public as having betrayed the trust reposed in them.
The main issue is to consider to what extent the councils have been able to exercise their limited autonomy.
The conferment of autonomy for local councils is defined by the very purpose of representation of the people at the grassroots level. Democracy is the process by which the people participate directly in and, thereby, take ownership of the administration of their affairs through popularly elected officials. This process of practicing democratic tenets in the smallest unit of government – being the ward and the constituency of the councillor- is yet to be fully operational in Nigeria’s local government administration. And until that happens, it would be inconceivable that the nation’s democracy can grow beyond its present inchoate state.
This is where the nexus between the success of the nation’s democracy and the true practice of autonomy by the councils lays. It demands a new paradigm for local government administration in which the councils’ functions will be driven solely by the aspirations of their constituents instead of the dictates of overarching state governors.
All along the focus on the local council system has been due primarily to the funds that accrue to them, particularly from the federation account, and the corruption-ridden processes of mismanaging the resources. The focus should now be on ensuring that the councils are weaned from the financial stranglehold of state government and to ensure the integrity of the process in electing councillors. The present arrangement through which state electoral commissions determine this issue is unsatisfactory.