Making The Local Government Administration Truly Autonomous -By Ifeanyichukwu George

Only last Saturday; the 17th of August of 2024, a local government election was successfully conducted in Bauchi state of Nigeria. An election that saw a whopping 500 persons returned as councilors while a total of 20 persons returned as chairmen-elect. Now, this is coming on the heels of the recent Supreme Court judgment which validated the long quest for an independent 3rd tier of government by stakeholders in the Nigerian project.

The said judgment in part, held that it was unconstitutional for state governors to hold funds allocated for the local government councils. And that the 774 local government councils in the country should manage their funds themselves. It also clarified that caretaker committees are now prohibited to manage local council funds. But then, the euphoria that followed this landmark judgment had hardly died down when state INEC of about 12 states rolled out their election timetables. So far, Bauchi has conducted what is adjudged a fairly peaceful election in the state.

And from the surface, things appear to be going well except that those that returned elected in that election are sworn in by Governor Bala Mohammed instead of by the state judge. It is my considered opinion that if the local government would be truly autonomous; the chief judge of the state should be empowered and saddled with the task to do their swearing in just the same way the chief judge of the state swears in the governor and the chief judge of the federation swears in the president and his vice and, the clerk of the national and state assemblies swears in the legislators respectively.

Otherwise, we would be making fools of ourselves to think that we now have a truly independent local government administration. The concern is that as far as politics goes in this country; any little show of power is misinterpreted and usually taken too far as to mean that one tier of the state political structure is subservient to the other. Hence, why the 1999 constitution as amended empowered the state chief judge to swear the governors instead of the president or perhaps the national assembly!

Watching Governor Bala Mohammed on AIT the 18th day of August acting like he was appointing a caretaker committee filled me with horror. And I was like: Is this the local government autonomy we have lobbied; fought and waited for all these years? Is this what the Supreme Court calls independence; a system that allows the state governor instead of the chief of the state to swear in the council chairmen and their councilors? Ok, let’s wait and see how the management of local government funds will go.

The issue at stake is this: it is not as if Nigeria lacked well-defined laws. In most cases a viable law is not the problem. The problem is and has remained the caliber of people who interpret our laws. If the Supreme Court judgment provides for a clear autonomy where the local government administration is known and regarded as a third-tier of government; why then must the swearing-in be left in the purview of the chief executive officer of the state?

How does the action of Governor Bala Mohammed serve to sweeten or add value to the clear judgment of autonomy? For me, I think that this question should really spark a serious conversation around what local administration truly is and what it is not if we would prevent the future calamity that is already triggered by the actions of Governor Bala from happening. Nigeria has really had a long walk to democracy already to not be seeing gains we should see.

And I’m usually amazed each time Nigerians argued on what true federalism is and what it’s not! Are we saying that terms or terminologies now differed with continent or race? But why? We accepted the western education that was handed down to us from Europe and the West and, have even seen that many of their postulations, theories or theorem is universally applicable! In fact, our economy today is modeled and, constantly analyzed by their terms!

So why do we struggle to also apply their postulations in our political and governance system? Their postulations for instance; say that autonomy means independence or operating by self without an external interference and then we say; no, it is not so! They say democracy is government of the people, by the people and for the people and, then we say no; democracy is for the elite, by the elite and for the elite.

Indeed, we should be ashamed of ourselves to be living in a world where every Tom, Dick and Harry strives to make a positive mark on life; yet insist on always creating impressions that are inimical to human dignity; impressions that are everything but good and, impressions that are wrong. I therefore forward this piece of my thought to the press in the hope that it will spark discussions that are necessary to clearly define the subject of third-tier autonomy.

Amb. Ifeanyichukwu George; Executive Director, Self-Awareness for Suicide Prevention Initiative, Africa writes from Abuja. 08062577718