The Gradual Death Of The Local Government System (2) -By Eric Teniola

From last week, continues the narrative of how failure to keep to the principle of separate development as espoused by the colonial authorities has led to the gradual death of the local government in Nigeria

LARGELY, because of this, the respective colonial administrative regimes of the British in Nigerian found it plausible to insist on a local government system whose cardinal common feature was the achievement of separate development for a colonial state of divergent cultures. Since these positions espoused by both the internal and external agents were also translated to arrangements at the higher tiers of government (namely the central and the regional), the result was that local government administration became essentially the concern of regional governments. The other related result was that the regional governments gave their respective local governments the character considered appropriate to the region. This was how local government administration played crucial roles in the forging of federalism in Nigeria.

A number of conclusions are derivable from all these. Local government administration in colonial Nigeria in theory and practice was designed to promote federalism. In the process it also became a promoter of regional thinking often at the expense of the country. In fact, it was not organised to promote the sense or thought of one country among the component citizenry. Therefore as at independence in 1960, local government administration was a sort of mixed blessing for Nigerian federalism. At one level it enabled the policy of separate development to prosper and thus fostered federalist impulses.

At another, it became the captive of regional governments and forces, championing essentially regional aspirations and interest with little or no care for federal ones. It can also be seen that the “accidental foundations of federalism and its corollary, local government (native administration) in Nigeria under Lugard had become consciously pursued foundation by the end of colonial rule, leaving the country with the dilemma posed by the legacy of this mixed blessing since then. The unwavered dimensions of this dilemma include intergovernmental relations, the status of local government, and its role in the federal set-up.

Of all the tragedies that have struck governance in Nigeria, the gradual death of the local government system is the worst. Either we like it or not, the local government system is dying. Today, if I may ask: which of the local governments is functioning? The central government must save the local government from total collapse. And the best way is to reform the system. I quite agree with the Clement Ebri’s committee report that the preponderant position of all the Local Government Councils in the Federation is that local governments should merge as creations of the Constitution in order to give them full-fledged autonomy.

The provision in Section 7 (1) of the Constitution which guarantees a system of democratically elected councils is seen as achieving that objective. But a continuation of the same subsection (1) went further to empower the State Houses of Assembly to make laws to ensure their existence by providing for their establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils. This is seen as detracting from the desired constitutionally guaranteed autonomy. By the existing provision, it is argued that local governments have been reduced to mere administrative appendages of state governments with unpleasant consequences as current experience have shown even as they are funded from the Federation Account.

There certainly are inherent contradictions in the demand for the restructuring of Nigeria into a true federation as the accepted political structure. In one view, there is an overwhelming demand for the adoption of true federalism with all its trappings, namely and essentially—the recognition of the integrity of the federating states within the union with local government remaining an internal affair of the states; the centre (Federal Government) derives its donated powers and authority from the people constituted in the states; accordingly the centre cannot take over or interfere in the internal management of the affairs of the federating states such as dealing directly with local governments.

By implication, therefore, the federating states in an undiluted federal system reserve the power to create or establish a system of local government which takes account of their internal diversity or recognises the plural character of the nation.

To be continued..