Obstacles to LG autonomy

  As at the last count, 23 out of 36 state houses of assembly voted against the changes.  While this process may have stalled the long-drawn effort to give the third tier of government in the country some measure of viability, it should not be the last word on the matter because such denial goes […]

  As at the last count, 23 out of 36 state houses of assembly voted against the changes.  While this process may have stalled the long-drawn effort to give the third tier of government in the country some measure of viability, it should not be the last word on the matter because such denial goes against the grain of the practice of representative democracy.
The question of autonomy for councils has been a regular feature in Constitution review exercises in Nigeria, and it is disappointing that this was not possible in the latest round. It is important that debate on the issue be revisited because of the crucial position of local governments among the three-tier structure of administration in the country as enshrined in the Constitution and the nature of the services they render to the people.
Local governments perform important functions, one of which is to champion the challenge of rural transformation which every government in Nigeria claims as its main priority, but also ends as the primary area of betrayal of the people, in terms of poor service delivery, by successive administrations.  They also provide social services in their areas of jurisdiction, among others.
 It is for these objectives that the Constitution defines for them a distinct identity, and statutory allocation of public funds, but is vague in apportioning power over their finances. The absence of defined provisions for fiscal autonomy for them hinders their capacity to perform, hence the dubious spoilers’ game that state governors play in the affairs of the local governments, hijacking their funding in the name of joint accounts, leaving the councils with little resource to execute projects and maintain services.
Most of the state governors spared no effort to mobilise their colleagues to challenge the provision right from its conception as a feature of the constitution amendment process. They also persuaded their state legislators to vote against the proposed amendments.  
The main argument in respect of local government autonomy derives from the claim by state governors that the functions assigned to the local councils by the Constitution can equally be performed by the state governments. However, after 14 years of unbroken practice of democracy in the country, the state governments in Nigeria are yet to acquit themselves in that regard. Rather, the fortunes of the local governments have continued to dip through the suffocating grip of the governors on the finances of the third tier.   
In another context, the privations of the local government can also be traced to the lack of capacity of the functionaries to rise up to their constitutional duties and assert themselves within the provisions of extant statutes, for the benefit of the constituents. A typical case is the issue of the Local Government Scheme of Service, which has been approved by the Federal Government, but is yet to be implemented due to stumbling blocks it to it by the state governments.
The latest setback calls for new ways to facilitate the attainment of particularly fiscal autonomy for the local governments. The recent move by the National Assembly, through the National Institute for Legislative Studies, to develop legislative capacity for the local governments is one step in the right direction. But it won’t be enough until the Constitution is amended to remove any ambiguity in the practice of autonomy by local councils.