Kwara State governor and chairman of Nigeria’s Governors’ Forum (NGF), AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, yesterday said the 36 state governors would meet on Wednesday over the autonomy of local government areas.
AbdulRazaq in a statement described the Supreme Court judgement on local government autonomy as a welcome development.
He said the NGF would meet to look at the issues wholly and come up with resolutions.
The statement signed by AbdulRazaq’s press secretary, Rafiu Ajakaye, said: “We welcome the ruling of the Supreme Court; compliance is a given. Our attorneys-general have applied for the enrollment order which we will study carefully.
“By and large, the governors are happy with the devolution of powers with respect to local government autonomy. It relieves the governors of some burdens. People really don’t know how much states expend in bailing out local governments. It’s not going to affect the states, we’ve not tampered with local government funds.
“What the local governments have to do is to manage themselves, especially with the upcoming minimum wage. They have to manage their affairs and make sure salaries are paid and traditional rulers get their five percent. Those are the main issues.
“As you are aware, the tripartite committee (on the minimum wage) has met and submitted its report. The decision on the figure is the prerogative of the president, which he would also transmit to the National Assembly for a robust debate before it’s adopted.”
Meanwhile, a Lagos-based lawyer, Ugwuzor Adindu, says he does not believe that the scrapping of state electoral bodies would solve the problem of manipulating local government elections.
Adindu said, “Sincerely, what’s the difference between INEC and the SIECs? Each of them works for the appointer.
“Again, if INEC is allowed to conduct all elections in the country, it negates the principle of federalism as contained in the present constitution.”
The senior lawyer also said unless there is a change of attitude by politicians, the Supreme Court judgement would not change anything.
He said, “On the issue of holding local government officials accountable, the question is; who nominates or selects the chairman as a candidate? It is the governor or the governor’s godfather.
“The local government chairmen have no political spine of their own. All they need to do is to sign a paper of how they spent the money, which they never did. If they refuse, they would instigate councilors to impeach the chairman.
“If you can recollect, it was not like this in the first four years of this civil rule. The problem started immediately after the Supreme Court judgement in the case of the attorney-general of Abia State against the attorney-general of the federation championed by the Lagos State government under the leadership of the current president of Nigeria. The lawyer that represented the entire 36 states of the federation was Chief F.R.A. Williams of blessed memory.
“It was after that epochal judgment that the governors, in collusion with the state assemblies, started enacting laws that hindered the local governments. That’s how governors started removing elected chairmen, introducing transition committee chairmen, and administering local governments without chairmen, whether elected or transitioned.
“In effect, it’s only the masses of our people that can rise to question any local government chairman who does not give account how they spent the allocation received in a particular month. This can only be possible if FAAC will publish allocations to every local government in the major languages of Nigeria in the media,” he said.
On his part, human rights lawyer, Liborous Oshoma, who hailed the Supreme Court judgement as a step in the right direction, said unless the Constitution is amended, nobody can stop the state’s electoral bodies from conducting local government elections.
He said that until Section 197 of the Constitution is amended to ensure that the election into the local governments is conducted by a body different from the state electoral body, the country would just be dancing around the issues because the state governors are still going to appoint people into these local governments.
The lawyer also maintained, “We don’t criticise state electoral bodies like we criticise or talk about INEC. If we channel half of the energy that we use to talk about INEC to some of these state electoral bodies, we’ll probably not have the selection processes that we have at the state level, and we’ll be able to say honestly, with this judgement that we’ll be able to get a lot.
A former president of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Malachy Ugwumadu, said it is not about who conducts the elections but the strength of the institution and the integrity of the individuals involved.
Ugwumadu stated, “The challenge is not so much about the character of the law but the operators of the law, such that when the laws establishing the independent electoral commissions of the respective states are made without a corresponding change (“Amendment”) in the charitable and patriotic quotient of the implementers, the amended legislations will be of no moment.
“Secondly, the laws establishing the various states independent electoral commissions are laws of the respective states and neither Acts of the National Assembly or the Constitution. Thus, it is very doubtful whether the respective Houses of Assembly can outsource their legislative powers to the National Assembly or make laws binding on the federal government.
“Similarly, item F in the 3rd schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999(As Amended) does not grant INEC powers to conduct elections into local government councils in Nigeria.
Thus, the amendment sought should empower an independent body to be constituted at the state level by public nominations for elections through stakeholders in the respective states or by the State Judicial Service Commission.
“The focus is to attain independence and impartiality of the election management team at state levels. Otherwise, the collaboration window provided under S.4(b) of Part 11 of the 3rd schedule is sufficient to allow INEC to conduct elections in local councils.
“By Ss. 7(3), 15(5), 120(3)(4) and S.162(3)(5)(6)(7)&(9) the Nigerian state, the state Houses of Assembly of the federating sub-national states and even the legislative arms of the local government councils bear primary responsibilities to ensure that local government executives do not squander, abuse or divert funds allocated to them.
“But since our experiences have shown a very scant degree of accountability through these organs of government, then Nigerians through the civil society in Nigeria should leverage on this judgment to intensify campaigns and advocacies around the issues of prudence and accountability,” the lawyer stated.
