Local governments must be sufficiently empowered to perform their duties
Based on the 1999 Constitution, the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) are established by the respective State Houses of Assembly in the 36 states to conduct elections to local government councils. But as we have seen over the past 27 years, such elections are conducted under an environment antithetical to entrenchment of democracy. Not only are these elections habitually rigged by governors in favour of the political party in power in their states, the governments they produce are run almost like private fiefdoms. And for more than two decades, the abuse of local governments by state governments has persisted, despite many court rulings. This no doubt accounts largely for the massive degradation at the grassroots, giving rise to insecurity and social strife in several parts of the country.
In the past three months, no fewer than six states have conducted local government elections in which each of these states secured 100 per cent victory for their ruling party. For instance, on 13 June, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won all chairmanship and councillorship positions across the 21 local government areas in Adamawa State. Four weeks later on 11 July in Edo State, the All Progressives Congress (APC) won all the 18 chairmanship seats after 16 months of an illegal caretaker administration. And on 29 August in Anambra, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) won the chairmanship seats in all the 21 local governments. A week earlier, little-known Allied People’s Movement (APM) won all 20 chairmanship seats in Bauchi State. That has been the pattern of local government elections in all the states under the current dispensation.
The key factors contributing to flawed elections include the absence of constitutionally guaranteed financial and operational independence for SIECs, according to the Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo. “This lack of autonomy enables state governors to interfere in SIEC operations and deprive them of necessary funds, thus undermining their ability to conduct credible elections,” Itodo argued. “These constitutional weaknesses incapacitate the SIECs, depriving citizens of their right to elect leaders who represent their will.” The cumulative effect of these has been chronic underdevelopment of the council areas which, castrated as they are, remain unable to deliver on their primary mandate of providing basic social infrastructure, including primary healthcare, primary education, feeder roads and modern markets, at the local levels.
Worried by the deteriorating governance and democratic decline at the grassroots level, many Nigerians have sought constitutional backing to saddle the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with conducting local government elections. The reasons are not far-fetched. Even with all its drawbacks at national and state elections, INEC has been conducting elections into the six area councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with some measure of regularity and credibility. Indeed, at no time has one single political party won elections in all the constituencies in the FCT. This is in sharp contrast to the elections conducted by the SIECs whose outcomes are mostly predetermined.
In a landmark judgment on local government autonomy, the Supreme Court in July 2024 ruled that henceforth, allocations from the federation account should be paid directly into individual local government account and no more through the State Local Government Joint Account. That effectively nullified Section 162 (6) of the constitution which established the joint account into which monies due to the councils from the federation account were paid for onward disbursement to them by the states. Unfortunately, more than one year after the apex court judgement, the decision is yet to be implemented as no local government is receiving allocation directly from the Federation Account. Besides, financial autonomy alone will not cleanse the councils of limited legitimacy, capacity problem, and the mind-boggling corruption.
The abuse of the local council system by the states has created lack of good governance at the grassroots where the majority of Nigerians reside. A consensus has also emerged: for good governance at this critical level of government, there is an urgent need for root and branch reforms that must include the conduct of credible elections and true financial autonomy.