Who will save our local government councils?

Even from their relatively humble status – being the third tier of governance – news about Nigeria’s 774 local governments often trends beyond issues in their immediate statutory domains and into the main stream of national discourse for different reasons. Constitutionally, the local governments are statutorily designated to provide down-to-earth administration for the grassroots in […]

Even from their relatively humble status – being the third tier of governance – news about Nigeria’s 774 local governments often trends beyond issues in their immediate statutory domains and into the main stream of national discourse for different reasons. Constitutionally, the local governments are statutorily designated to provide down-to-earth administration for the grassroots in order to avail that segment of the society fast tracked development. However, the run of much of tales about them is often of fraud and sleaze, non-performance as well as unquestioning acquiescence to political manipulation, even when such tendencies undermine the interests of the wider cross section of their constituents.  And just in case there occur instances of purposeful administrative enterprise, such tendencies are often far   between. This is the setting that provides part of the backdrop to the ongoing muscle flexing between the newly elected governor of Edo State, Monday Okpebholo and the leadership of the 18 local government councils in that state, comprising 18 chairmen and 192 councilors.

At the last count in the tussle between the governor and the local government officials, the Edo State House of Assembly, acting on the strength of a petition from him, had on December 17, 2024 suspended the local government chairmen, along with their deputies.  

In response, the affected officials approached a Benin High Court, which ordered the reversal of the suspension.  In the same vein, an Abuja High Court also restrained the governor and the Edo State House of Assembly from proceeding with the suspension process pending the determination of the substantive suit on the tussle. Likewise, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice had also waded into the matter with a written condemnation of the ambit of the governor and the Edo State House of Assembly to remove the elected council chairmen, as it were, unconstitutionally.

This was accompanied by a gale of activities comprising impeachment processes against some of the affected council chairmen and their deputies, with the deployment of thugs to enforce the exit from office by the so impeached chairmen.

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It was in the midst of these developments and the intention to justify his action that Governor Okpebholo rather belatedly ‘revealed’ the reason for his action against the local government chairmen as their indulgence in financial malpractice, which, according to him, was the diversion of public funds for sharing among political leaders in the preceding administration of a now in opposition party – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Specifically, the governor alleged that the suspended local government chairmen and their respective deputies had diverted as much as N12 billion to leaders of the preceding PDP political leadership in the state out of the over N87 billion allocated from the federation account by the President Bola Tinubu-led federal government last year.

This claim by Okpebholo has been debunked by the Edo State PDP Caretaker Committee chairman, Tony Aziegbemi, who asked the governor to take the matter to the anti-graft agencies if he had a case.

However, juxtaposing the foregoing recall with the constitutional provisions for local government administration betrays at least two weak points. First is that by his hastiness to undermine the local government chairmen, Governor Okpebolo had inadvertently or otherwise betrayed an unmistakable agenda to dismantle the political structure of his predecessor, Godwin Obaseki of the now in opposition PDP, to which party the targeted local government council chiefs belong.

This development is incidentally a wasteful and sad tradition in Nigerian politics, where an incumbent tends to dismantle the legacies of a preceding administration, especially when such a dispensation belongs to a different political party from the incumbent’s. Perhaps, one of the few exceptions is the governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, who retained the legacies of his predecessor, Nyesom Wike until the duo fell apart over personal differences.

A second factor is the attraction from the rich trove of financial resources of the local governments, which every state governor in Nigeria eyes and lays hold of as if of right. This is even as such a tendency clearly violates the letter and spirit of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Monday Okpebholo has not indicated any sign that he be considered different. In fact, it was for the reason of the perennial highjack, as well as diversion of local government funds, which spawns the resultant stalling of development initiatives at the grassroots, that the entire enterprise of fostering fiscal autonomy for this third tier of governance remains justified.

The landmark judgement by the Supreme Court of July 2024 that the constitution allows local governments to manage their finances without supervision by state governments provides a turning point with respect to their operations.

In the final analysis, the situation in Edo State demonstrates not only the vulnerability of the country’s local government system to sporadic assaults from powers above, it also betrays the incontinence of the entire structure as liable for unbridled abuse, especially by unscrupulous officials who get elected into its commanding heights.

 

 

 

 

 

This raises the urgent need for a review of the constitutional provisions for local government administration in Nigeria. Until then, the fortunes of the local government system will remain waiting for rescue from sundry opportunistic traducers.

 

 

 

In the final analysis, the situation in Edo State demonstrates not only the vulnerability of the country’s local government system to sporadic assaults from powers above, it also betrays the incontinence of the entire structure as liable for unbridled abuse, especially by unscrupulous officials who get elected into its commanding heights.

 

 

 

 

 

This raises the urgent need for a review of the constitutional provisions for local government administration in Nigeria. Until then, the fortunes of the local government system will remain waiting for rescue from sundry opportunistic traducers.