In what appeared like a rebellion against the stand of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF),on the issue of granting autonomy to the local government system, the Association of Local Governments’ of Nigeria, ALGON, recently? organized a three-day conference at Nike Lake Hotel, Enugu, where this contentious? issue was extensively discussed.
But the council chairmen who had already been granted financial autonomy by their respective governors’, albeit without constitutionl backing, the Enugu outing provided a veritable forum for them to showcase the various projects they had executed in their various local government areas.
Enugu is one of the states whose governor, Sullivan Chime, had since 2007, when he assumed office, given the council chairmen a free hand to control funds accruing to them from the federation account.
Prior to the conference which attracted many stakeholders in the Nigerian project, the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) had at its several meetings stridently opposed granting full autonomy to the local government system.
Some governors had before now,? argued that most local government councils will not be able to fend for themselves if there is a constitutional provision granting full autonomy to the councils.??
And following the stand of the governors on the issue, not a few people concluded that ALGON might not muster enough courage to discuss the issue of full autonomy for local government system during its meeting in the Coal City.
But despite the opposition by the NGF against granting full autonomy to the government system? which is known as the third tier of government,?? ALGON? went ahead to hold a National Conference with the theme “Rediscovering the Local Government System in the Emerging Constitution.”
Interestingly, President Goodluck Jonathan, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Political Matters, Ahmed Gulak, declared support for the granting of autonomy to the local councils.
Former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who delivered a thought-provoking lecture at the occasion, restated his earlier call for devolution of more powers and revenues from the Federal Government to the state/regional governments.? He argued that every tier of government should be reasonably self-reliant in terms of generating revenues to run its affairs.
He stressed the need to ensure internal party democracy so “that the selection of candidates for council elections and other levels, are carried out by the generality of party members
rather than a few godfathers”.
The former vice president further said that though the joint State-local government account was meant to acknowledge the rightful role of the federating states in the local government administration, the control of the state governments over the joint account had ensured that the development objective of the direct allocation had been not met.
This development, he added, has left the local governments worse off than they were prior to the policy shift, adding that Nigeria’s local government system still lacked reasonable autonomy to provide services and implement development projects for local administrators.
He? recalled that when he inaugurated ALGON on 30th November 1999 at the African Women Center, Abuja, the main objectives of forming the association were listed “as, among , other things, the promotion and protection of the rights, privileges, interests and autonomy of Local Governments for the ultimate survival of the local government councils in Nigeria”.
He stated his happiness that many of the objectives had been realized and that members of the organization had sustained the spirit and drive for which it was formed, but said that the organization was still facing many challenges.
“An issue at the forefront of current discussions on the constitution amendment is the autonomy of local governments. Nigeria’s local governments still lack reasonable autonomy to provide services and implement development projects for the local populations in an efficient and timely manner. Taking a cue from the overbearing federal government, state governments have been overbearing in their relationship with local administrators.
“Many have been abusing the joint state-local government accounts by tampering with local government funds as reports and petitions make clear. Interestingly, while these abuses go on many local government leaders are unable to say so for fear of angering their state governments” he stated.
In his speech, the Governor of Niger State and Chairman of Northern Governors Forum, Dr Babangida Aliyu, insisted that “unless we differentiate between “local government financing arrangement, which is a constitutional issue and local government autonomy, which has been addressed extensively by previous local government guidelines of 1976, we are likely to mislead the layman by manipulating the meaning of the term autonomy”.
According to Governor Aliyu, the current allocation structure of: Federal Government- 52.68 per cent States 26.72 per cent? and local governments -20.60 per cent is not favourable to the tier that cater for the needs of the majority of the people.
“We need to pay more attention to this and demand for a restructuring to enhance the capacity of the states and local governments to serve the people better in this order: FG-40 per cent, States-37 per cent and LGs-27 per cent. This argument is intended to strengthen the capacity of local governments and the states to discharge their responsibilities and serve the people most effectively”, he stated.
Earlier in his welcome address, the President of the association, Mr Nwabueze Okafor, had said that the conference was one of the events to mark its 13th anniversary.
The ALGON boss stated that the anniversary coincided with the current efforts by the National Assembly to amend the 1999 Constitution.
According to Nwabueze, the conference provided a forum for the local government system, stakeholders and opinion leaders to meet and exchange ideas and experience.
The Mexican Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Marco Antonia, who also spoke at the occasion, stated that Nigeria and Mexico had many similarities.
The ambassador said both countries had more than 100 million inhabitants who play key roles in the affairs of their continents.
Several days after the end of the conference, many here say that lack of internal democracy in the political parties would make a mockery of autonomy for the local government councils if granted.
The consensus here is that the governors would still control the local government councils if they are allowed to hand-pick chairmanship and councillorship candidates for their respective political parties.
Also, not a few say that state independent electoral commissions should be scrapped, since according to Thomas Ukaiwe, an Enugu-based public affairs analyst, they have the predilection of favouring the ruling party in their different states of operation.
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Former Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, Governor of Niger State and Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Dr Babangida Aliyu, among others attended the function.
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