I am propelled by the responses, reactions questions and comments on my previous articles to write this one. The previous article title “Local government autonomy in Nigeria and the proposed Indefinite Strike by Nigerian Teachers” was published in some online journals like: thewillnigeria.com, saharareporters.com and others on December 3rd, 2014 and thereafter.
One of my readers asks me of any specific federation that practices three tiers of federalism. Questions raised by most of the readers are the difference between independent local governments, autonomy of local government and partial autonomy for the local governments. I have decided to dedicate this article to answering them. Responses to these are the subject of this article.
India is a typical example of a federation with constitutionally recognized three tiers of government. Originally, India started her federal system of government with two tiers (Federal government and states). After sometime, necessity just like it is happening in Nigeria now compelled her to recognize the local governments (Panchayats) as the third tier of government.
Apart from India, Brazil is another federal system of government with three tiers of government. The 1937 constitution of Brazil recognized two tiers of government. But unusual circumstances just like we are having in Nigeria now constrained the federation to recognize her municipalities (local governments) as the third tier in her 1988 constitution.
Independent local government administration cannot be explained without first discussing the difference between a strong federalism and a weak federation. In a strong federation the federal government is powerful, strong and domineering over the federating units just like the Federal government in Abuja is.
In most cases, fiscal federalism and the source of fund determines which of the federating unit is stronger.
The Nigeria federation is strong because the central government, state and local government rely on the oil revenue which is shared among the three tiers of government. In Nigeria system, the federal government is the receiver and the custodian of the money before the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) now seats to share it among the federating units.
In weak federations like United States of America (USA), the states and local governments control their resources and pay taxes, royalties and other forms of levies to run the federal government. In this type of federation, the central government has limited control over the finances and administration of the states. Limitation of control is defined by the constitution of the federal union. It is necessary to mention here that apart from the federal constitution, each of the states in the USA has her own constitution.
The federal constitution which defines the relationship and the sovereignty between the central government and the other federating units clearly states the form and power of the component units.
The relationship between the federal government and the states can be vertical, horizontal or lateral.
I should also mention that local administration units are not peculiar to federalisms only. Even unitary governments as we have in UK and Nigeria (during General Aguyi Ironsi military regime) still made use of weak local government units. In unitary regime, all local governments are under the federal government since there is no second tier of government.
With the explanation above, it becomes clear that we can only have an “independent local government” in a weak federation. This is because neither the state nor the local government (county) will need financial or administrative help from the federal government. The only responsibility they have is to follow federal constitution, federal laws and remit taxes, royalties, levies and other forms of payment to the central government. This is not really common in the real world.
In all cases of autonomous or independent local government, the local governments have always been under the supervision of the state government. Usually, the state houses of assembly. Just as it was rightly said by Gov Babangida Aliyu of Niger State that “the local government belongs to the state” (Nigeria Vanguard, December 2nd, 2014)
An autonomous local government will be a situation where the local government has very little to do with the supervising state authority. Some of the qualities of an autonomous local government would be:
Democratically Elected Executive Council
Democratically Elected Legislative Council
Free and Independent Council Court
Council Police
Direct control of Its Sources and Application of Fund
Authority to Conduct its election by Itself
Direct Control of the Elected Officers on Its Affairs without recourse to external bodies.
The above stated scenario is far from what the national assembly is requesting for the local governments in Nigeria. The national assembly is asking for what may be called a “qualified autonomy” or “partial-autonomy” for the local governments. This is because it is called “financial and administrative autonomy”
for the local governments.
We have to recollect that the national assembly embarked on the constitutional amendment based on calls from notable Nigerians and in fact consultation with the general populace held across the federal and senatorial constituencies. It was a called to empower the councils and check mate the perceived excesses of the state governors. This may be in the same spirit with the India and Brazilian constitutions mentioned above. From the national assembly’s perception, the excesses may be summarized into three namely: Electoral, Financial and Administrative.
The national assembly categorized the electoral excesses in to two, Namely: None conduct of local government election which eventually leads to the use of caretaker committees and the poor conduct of local government elections which usually leads to a situation where the party in power at the state level ends up winning all available seats in the local governments of the state through rigging and manipulation of the electoral processes. (No state or political party is an exception). In order to correct this, the national assembly in its wisdom is proposing scrapping the various state INECs and transfer the power to conduct local government elections to the Federal INEC which is now building image for itself in electoral sanity and fairness.
Before moving further, I will like to say that I have once been a beneficiary of non conduct of local government election, having served as the Caretaker Committee Chairman of my council in the recent past. In the contrast, I have also been at the battered end of a poorly conducted local government election when I was rigged out of an election in December 15th, 2007 at gunpoint. Nothing can be done to remedy the injustice because my party then, AC was in the opposition in my state. I was muscled out from the election, through the tribunal to the appeal tribunal.
The financial impediment noticed by the national assembly happens when the amount allocated to each local government from the federation account reduces before it gets to the destination. In order to take control of this perceived abuse the national assembly is proposing to scrap the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) where certain part of council funds (Including teacher’s salaries) are deducted from the council’s financial allocation from Abuja before remitting the balance to the owner councils.
Going through the proposed amendment which I got from my state House of Assembly, this is how far the national assembly can go. They cannot even carry out any administrative reform because over 70% of every local government staff is employed by the state through the state Civil Service Commission. As long as these workers are employed by the state, there is no complete or full autonomy for the councils. As a matter of fact, the financial autonomy will remain a mirage.
The Head of Local Government Administration (HLA), The Director of Finance, The Auditor and in fact all other directors take instructions from the state. They are the signatories to the local government bank accounts. Once their employer at the state directs them to refuse signing cheques or to disobey the political heads of the council, they will comply since the Chairman can neither employ nor punish them.
Governor Babangida Aliyu, the national assembly is not removing the councils from the states. All what its saying is that the states should allow them to perform; they should allow them to serve the people. Hence all the parliamentarians are asking for is partial or conditional autonomy. This is required to make our local governments effective.
Written by Akinyemi Akinlabi, Former Chairman Caretaker Committee Ibarapa Central Local Government Oyo State.
About the Author
