Date: 2017-01-17

Last year, the debate about Local Government Autonomy which has caused serious disquiet in states across the federation was accentuated by two high profile institutions (or personalities) seen as hope rising for many especially the local government workers that had endured unbearable situations.

While local government before its recent predicament was the bastion of good developmental and complementary governance with resources and policies that made the councils across the country the cynosure of real time grassroots administration, the situation today has been a very sordid and sorry narration. At the top of the very ugly situation is the equally horrific salary backlog issue that had mounted for months and even years.

The impact of the situation on the state commerce and economy can only be conceptualised when the plight of some of them are put in perspectives. According to a civil servant in the state who spoke on the issue, how do you describe a situation where parents with no other source of income are being owned years of salary with soaring bills to cater for the basic necessities of life like feeding, rents, fees and what have you without compromising any system they find themselves with no fault of theirs. It is that bad.

But why has the local government administration refused to work in the country and has even operated worse ever since the advent of democracy in 1999 than during military dictatorship that preceded it? While some commentaries laid it bare in the doorsteps of state governors, the call has been for autonomy at the third tier of governance to address the situation.

While all the local governments in the country are specified in the first schedule of the 1979 Constitution, their functions are specified in the fourth schedule of the same constitution whereas section 7 of the constitution talks about the fact that council executive must be democratically elected as guaranteed under the 1979 constitution.

But contrary to the books, it has been argued by some that local councils do not perform the responsibilities assigned to them under the 4th schedule for alleged interference of the state executives who many have accused of using the funds to further political interest and established firm control over them. This alleged interference has liquidated these councils and put the system in crisis.

According to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Governors who "sit in the state executive meeting and come up with a resolution that they have sacked an elected council executive and appoint council caretaker committees in the process is a gross violation of the constitution.

"That has become the norm, rather than the exception, where majority of the councils in Nigeria, even as we speak in this era of change and the promise APC made, are run by caretaker councils and there is nowhere in the constitution where caretaker is mentioned.

On what the House would do to rectify the situation, Dogara, who is also from the ruling APC noted that since the problem is constitutional, its only remedy is to amend the constitution in line with present realities. "The only way we can rescue the local government system or administration in Nigeria is by introducing amendments to the constitution and that is what we are trying to do. We attempted it in the 6th Assembly but most of the critical aspects of what we are talking about here did not scale 2/3rd votes from all the state assemblies in Nigeria.

"In the 7th Assembly, however, this issue of autonomy, financial autonomy of local government got endorsement of 20 state assemblies but unfortunately, we needed 2/3rd, so we were short of 4. So, it means that even if the president had assented to the Bill on Constitution Amendment, that aspect wouldn't have scaled through". According to him, the House can legislate that "any local government that is not democratically constituted will not have access to any funding from the federation.

But how will this play out in state assemblies across the country, most of which have turned the "inner room" of the state executive? And in the proposed amendment by the 8th Assembly, will the state assemblies vote for the much needed change by giving the 2/3 needed to make it work once and for all. Some state assemblies surprisingly rejected autonomy during the last constitutional amendment which dealt a major blow to the issue.

While Dogara's bombshell was still being scrutinised, the Supreme Court added bite to that voice by ruling that state governors cannot sack elected local government chairmen and councillors. According to the apex court, the practice of appointing administrators for local government councils was illegal.

Since that ruling, there had been concerns in the state regarding the constitution of the caretaker committee by government and although the issue is not a matter of litigation between the APC and opposition PDP, that judgment has added to the narration already on ground between the litigants.

In its struggle for what it termed freedom, the leadership of NULGE in the state has been making claims for illegal deductions and refunds but the government has consistently maintained the opposite. But beyond the autonomy even if it was finally granted, that does not mean uhuru for local government administration and clearing of backlogs as even during the 'boom' period, it was not that the workers were having it smoothly as regards welfare and salaries. What should be prioritised now is for the searchlight to be beamed on council executives backed with proactive legislations and financial checks that will criminalised any aspect of corruption or executive recklessness from the executives.

In the midst of all these, there had been talks of formation of Local Council Development Areas by state governors. While receiving the report of the Kawu Baraje-led committee at the government house recently, Governor Ahmed said when the LCDA is approved, it will play a pivotal role in targeting development and driving revenue generation at the council levels".

'Many communities and people were desirous of LCDAs given the interest it generated and the number of requests received. The LCDA will not impose additional burden on an already challenged local government council systems Governor Ahmed added.

As the issue continues to witness differing narrations, the Supreme Court judgement and impending constitutional amendment will be two issues that will dominate the discourse going forward as the key players most affected in the local government hope for a final solution.