Contrary to the provision of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which mandates the third tier of government, otherwise referred to as the local government areas, with a definite term for its elected officials, findings by LEADERSHIP SUNDAY have indicated that more than two-thirds of the existing 774 LGAs in the country are being administered by sole administrators appointed by the respective state governors.
The First Schedule, Part 1 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, lists the states of the Federation and the LGAs that comprise them.
Extant statute mandates elected LGA officials a three-year tenure. However, since the advent of the Fourth Republic politics in 1999,? elected governors have preferred appointing sole administrators to administer the LGAs in their respective states rather than conducting elections.
LEADERSHIP SUNDAY investigations confirmed that these governors usually appoint their aides as sole administrators of these LGAs.
Our investigations further revealed that these governors also circumvent the constitutional provision for the state and local government areas to run a joint account on the funds that accrue to the councils from the Federation Account.
It was learnt that, by virtue of the fact that these appointed sole administrators do not have constitutional backing, the governors give them only a fraction of their monthly financial allocation to pay staff salaries.
Speaking to LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, Senator Kabiru Gaya said that no fewer than 540 out of the 774 LGAs in the country are being managed by sole administrators, handpicked by governors instead of democratically elected chairmen.
Gaya, who was a former Kano State governor and now a ranking senator, told LEADERSHIP SUNDAY that the practice is a negation of the Constitution of Nigeria, and urged the governors to desist from using sole administrators to run the councils.
The chairman, Senate Committee on States and Local Governments, said that the current practice where governors recycle their supporters as caretaker committee members of their local government councils has no place in the Constitution of Nigeria.
He said, “The caretaker members so appointed by the governors must dance to the tune dictated by their masters, and, since they do so, they lose their autonomy in the process.
“Let me tell you that out of the 774 LGAs in Nigeria, 540 are under the control of sole administrators. This means that they are not elected, and it is unconstitutional.
“The constitution clearly states that there should be a transition from an elected chairman to another elected chairman. There is no provision in our constitution for a sole administrator.’’
The lawmaker said that for development to permeate the grass roots, key functionaries of the LG system should emerge through credible elections, to ensure that only mature and efficient persons are there to serve the needs of the people.
“We cannot stop governors from putting people from their parties into the councils, but they should show less interference in the affairs of the third tier of government so that people can feel the impact of democracy,” he said.
He dismissed calls for the scrapping of LGAs because of perceived non-performance, but called for increased budgetary allocation and granting of financial autonomy to that tier of government to enable it to serve the people better.
In his reaction, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, who was governor of Kaduna State for two terms, agreed that the issue has to be addressed.
He said: “It needs to be addressed …but the procedure for amending the constitution is part of the problem. If states don’t like a particular issue, they block it. It doesn’t matter whether it is for the good of the people.
These are fundamental issues that can lead to certain restructuring on how we govern.”