AUTONOMY

There are legitimate and defensible reasons why local government administration should be granted fiscal autonomy.  Given the required resources, independence over their affairs and manned by competent individuals, the local government is capable of catalyzing economic growth, generating employment, enhancing healthy living and protecting the environment.

Three quarters of local governments are rural communities. Does the governor in State House have the capacity to handle all the local government affairs? Does he understand the individual nuances of each community and does he have the time to pursue their needs? Giving the local government chairmen the responsibility that is required will reduce his load and amount to outsourcing some of the duties of governance, a model that has worked throughout the business community and has worked well. It also allows for inclusion and gives ownership of their affairs to the communities – under the governor’s watchful eye.

This will allow for a direct impact on the lives of all the host communities.  A town hall meeting will thus really be a town hall meeting.  Communities will know the local government chairman as they would have elected them and will have more direct access. How often are we laymen able to see let alone get close to the chief executive of the state? We only witness him in photographs posted above reception counters in business concerns or in all the government establishments. We only feel him as our cars are bullied or bumped off the road when ‘His Excellency’ is being ushered to a VIP meeting and we are stuck in the “go-slow” more often than not, caused by the poor state of the roads in the local government he is passing through as the dividends of democracy have not quite gotten here.

The state of affairs that we experience daily is a sad one as local government administration has been rendered ineffective, due to the fact that state governors merely handpick LG chairmen who receive monthly handouts from the governors to settle staff salaries with little left to carry out their constitutional duties. Their function has been reduced to foot soldiers of the ruling party in the state, who must be loyal to the governor and ensure that votes by hook or by crook are delivered come election day. That is why you will find that the same party which has won the state seat chairs all the local governments in that state. That is a fact. Leadership, accountability and grassroots development have therefore eluded us because the trickle-down effect has been severely hampered. The wide fissure between government and the governed therefore continues to widen because local government, which should serve as the link, is almost non-existent in its true form.    

We no fit see governor if dirty dey road and we no fit pass. Na only beer parlor complain we dey make. Ha, these politicians! Promises, promises but tomorrow no dey come lai lai! We have nobody to complain to when social and environmental services breakdown. We cannot pound on the local chairman’s door, as we know he has no funds and the governor is locked up in his gilded cage unless he decides to pass our way with his escorts and security detail. When the streets are filthy and pot holed, drainage blocked and water does not run, whom do we call? We can call no one, abuse the governor only and vow not to vote him in next time. But he has checkmated us already as he is in control of all the CASHOLA and the local government chairmen!

Governors and their cohorts in the National Assembly should desist from the frivolous and narrow-minded talk about fiscal autonomy amounting to creating emperors of LG chairmen. Citing arbitrariness as a reason for depriving this tier its due status is a testament to the failure of government at the centre to build strong institutions upon which accountability, probity, service and sincerity of purpose can be founded. Besides, governors have become emperors themselves and that is why so many of them have failed in service delivery. The provision for a joint body in the disbursement of funds at LG level will allow for healthy debate and monitoring. Unfortunately, only in Nigeria will a mechanism devised for due diligence be subjugated to create a brand of dictatorship by party. This is not the federalism we all signed up for.

Sadly, with most state legislators being stooges of their governors, the stakes will be high when the draft amendment gets to the state Houses of Assembly. However, if progress is the desired result, if indeed there is honesty (ha ha!), then we all know what should be done.