Biyi Adegoroye 
For decades, the fight for autonomy for the 744 local governments has dominated the Nigerian political landscape because of the councils’ impacts on grassroots development. One of the groups at the vanguard of that advocacy is the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE). As the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) commences direct funds disbursement to councils this month, NULGE President General, Comrade Ambali Akeem Olatunji, in this interview with BIYI ADEGOROYE, reminisces on the state of the councils, global best practices and projects into possible benefits derivable from their fiscal and political autonomy
You are about three years old as president of the National Union of Local Government Employees. How would you assess local government administration in Nigeria, prior to the recent Supreme Court-ordered autonomy?
Well, local governments have been systematically destroyed over time by state political actors due to diversion of local government allocations and usurpation of local government collectible revenues. Some of the plants, like tractors, that used to be available at the local governments are no longer there. They have either been vandalised or sold. So, local governments are in a parlous state, which largely resulted in the infrastructural deficit at that level. Rural roads are no longer passable and motorable, because if you look at it critically, over 70 per cent of road networks in the country fall within the purview of the rural areas.
In the past, local governments used to provide electricity in the rural areas. They provided transformers, poles, wires and what have you, but as of today, the local government can no longer do that. When you look at it generally, local governments have become dysfunctional, neglected and poorer under the 1999 and the current political dispensation. That has manifested in the form of abject poverty and harrowing experience for Nigerians, and political exclusion of the rural areas.
How do you see the election, or leadership recruitment into the local governments?
The state electoral commissions have not been able to conduct credible and transparent elections in the councils. Local governments are being led by governors’ political nominees, to the contravention of Section 7 (1) of the Constitution, that guarantees political leadership in the local government.
What has been the result of the poor leadership recruitment pattern into the local governments, like the quality of chairmen and councilors?
Well, the problem is that, before the Supreme Court judgement, more than half of the leadership at local government were selected, not even elected. They were either caretaker chairmen, overseers or what have you. So that could not make them accountable to the people, because he who pays the piper dictates the tune.
Number two is that since they were not elected, they don’t feel accountable to the people, because you can’t evaluate their performance on the basis of any manifesto. The third point is that the local government budget has been jaundiced and dislocated so that the local government would do their budget, send it to the legislative arm which scrutinized it and ensure they are electively implemented.
The fourth is that the role of local government has not been appreciated. People tend to neglect the importance of local governments. And local governments have not been able to provide services for meaningful growth and development in the rural areas.
What has been your position on this, because I recall when NULGE under your leadership once called for a state of emergency in the local government system?
For over 21 years, NULGE has been leading the campaign for local government autonomy, and that autonomy is in three facets- political autonomy, that leaders of local governments should be democratically elected. That will give room for political inclusion, because Nigeria is a nation within nations, having over 250 ethnic groups, with different languages and tribal leanings. The only one that can accommodate all of them is to have a vibrant local government that will be of political and governance relevance to the people. So, our belief is that once we have political freedom in the local governments, people will freely elect their leader and those leaders will be accountable to the people.
The other point is that the power to oversee the local government should be vested in its legislative arm, not in the State House of Assembly, because a democratically elected arm of government should not have power over the other one, like the power to remove the other. As the Federal Government has no power to dissolve state government, state government should not have power to dissolve local government. That will facilitate political stability at the local government. In the past what we witnessed was that governors would wake up and in a single breath and unilaterally dissolved the local government’s political leadership.
Like it happened in Edo State recently…
Yes, and that was why we lauded the position of the Attorney-General of the Federation on the matter, which is in tandem with our position and the Supreme Court decision. And I also watched Senator Adams Oshiomhole, a former governor and leader in Edo State who said the same thing on the floor of the National Assembly. So, the era of such dissolution and replacement of council chairmen with governor’s cronies are gone.
And another is that the tenure of local government chairmen and councilors should be determined such that local government political leadership should enjoy the same four years. They are not inferior to other levels of governments.
Number three is fiscal autonomy. That is the issue of direct funding of local governments. Local government allocation from the federal level should not be sent through the state government’s joint account. Our experience is that remitting such money through a joint account has been observed in breach, and has served as a conduit pipe in which funds meant for development and growth are syphoned. This enabled state governments to live large on the funds of local governments. So, we believe that should be done and even the collectible revenue of local governments under fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution as amended, that is taxes and rates, which states have used subsidiary laws to legislate against the provisions of the Constitution should be abolished.
Local governments should be allowed to generate their revenues as stated in the Constitution. Revenue collection by state governments for signage, packs and garages as well as refuse disposal should be abolished. Issues like conduct of marriages and collecting revenue therefrom belongs to local governments and markets and stores should be collected by local governments.
Primary healthcare, primary education belongs to local governments. If they are allowed to do all these, local governments will be financially independent and strong to carry out their day-to-day constitutional activities.
There should also be administrative autonomy in the local governments because absolute power corrupts absolutely. And that local government funds should be well-tracked. We should adopt the procurement policy at the local government level in line with global best practices. That government policy should be in effect to monitor project wards and implementation.
Again, the audit unit in the local government should be upgraded to a full-fledged department, to give power to the head of department to hire independent surveys, raise audit alarms and stem financial recklessness at the local government level. The Local Government Service Commission should be enshrined in the Constitution, that will create room for quality assurance, enhanced productivity, retirement and pensions at the local government. So that we will have a unified local government system in place. Those are our requests and we have been agitating for these in the last 21 years, mobolising and conscientising Nigerians and carrying out reorientation, so that we can return to the glorious years of the 70s and 80s, when local governments were functional; the era of DFRRI- Directorate of Food Roads and Rural Infrastructure of Ibrahim Babangida era. This will ensure total transformation at the local government level.
As of today, the quality of our education cannot be said to be in the best interest of Nigerians. Look at the infrastructural deficit at the primary school level. We believe that if local government autonomy is fully granted, we will have total transformation of Nigeria.
Effective this January, local governments will start receiving their allocations directly from FAAC?
That is our belief.
What in your view are the likely benefits of that?
The benefits are so numerous. It will give a new lease of life to Nigerian communities. They will be able to ensure transformation of the grassroots and perform their constitutional duties. One, there will be a cleaner environment since they will carry regular refuse evacuation and disposal. They will be able to provide portable water for Nigerian communities, by sinking boreholes.
Local governments would also be able to look at alternative energy supply, because even with privatisation and energy generation and distribution in Nigeria, has become a caricature of what we expected. Nigerians are paying a higher tariff for darkness. It is time now for LGs to look at far and rural communities and see how to provide solar and wind energy as alternatives to this erratic hydro-electric power supply.
Our belief is that local governments will be able to carry out security surveillance, monitoring and community policing. If funds are disbursed directly, local governments will be alive to their responsibilities and open rural roads, bridging infrastructural gaps at the local government level. We requested that Federal Government should give us infrastructural support, in the forms of plants and equipment while the money is deducted over a period of time, so that local government will have tractors, graders, refuse emptier and what have you, so that local governments will hit the ground running immediately. That way, within the next three months, Nigerians would be happy and say ‘we have a neigbourhood government that really touch the lives of the people.’
Our believe is that the agric extension services of the local government will come to life and the issue of food insecurity will be squarely addressed, because local government will be able to recruit local hunters and vigilantes to police our rural roads, so that farmers can go to their farms and be able to transport farm produce to the markets and that will crash the food prices in Nigeria.
Local governments, in the past used to provide empowerment and skill acquisition for the rural women and youths, and that department will have to come back to life to start training Nigerian rural women and youths in skills. Our belief is that the local GDP will be positively impacted and this rural GDP will accumulate to state and national GDP. And if these happen, the quality of political leadership in the local government will improve, because most people are avoiding contest in LG elections because they believe that even if they are elected, there is no fund to execute good policies and programmes for the betterment of Nigerians. So, the benefits are so numerous.
But there are still fears of governors’ interference in view of the fact that the current set of local government political leaders were handpicked by the governors…?
Yes, at least, this fiscal autonomy is a major leap. Not all of the local government chairmen are just pushovers. It should interest you to know that under this current dispensation some of them have been able to come out and talk. They have been afraid to act all these while because they lacked financial independence. ‘If my funds come through you and you are in control of it and only giving me peanuts, I would become a beggar and release of my funds will be at your discretion.’
In fact, one of the requests we made is that FAAC must publish local government allocations every month. So that people will be able to demand accountability at the local government level. And again, we said that the Ministries of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs as well as Budget should also track local government funds. So, it is not going to be easy for them. Don’t forget that we have NFIU and we also recommended that there should be a joint committee of NULGE, Budget and Planning, Special Duties and FAAC, and this will be a monitoring committee on disbursement of local government funds. So, we have put a lot of internal control in place.
Do you think the governors have any reason to fear? Why are they uncomfortable?
I will call it the fear of the unknown. You know that every new change brings in a lot of fear. We have listened to them and we are ware that they are afraid of losing political relevance, because they believe that votes are cast at local government level and if we have a local government chairman that is performing, he will become a very powerful person. But let me assure them that if we have a governor that is focused and doing the needful, there is no need to fear any local government chairman.
Number two is that the local government was like pocket money for them, so leaving it to go directly to the local government is also giving some problems. But it is a matter of repriorotisation of programmes and projects. If a local government is performing, it is to the credit of the state government. The pressure on the state government will be reduced. It is not the duty of the state government to buy transformers or dig boreholes. The pressure was because local government funds have been hijacked. With local government autonomy, they will be able to perform, governors will now focus on higher thinking to develop the states – like urbanization, driving investors to the state and stuff like that. Those should be their priorities, not illumination of villages and the like.
From your international exposure, how can you compare local government administration with what obtains in the country?
Let me shock that Heathrow Airport in the UK is run by the local government and again, I have been to Gambia and there is no state government there. We only have administrators appointed by the national government. In Gambia we only have a department of Police Affairs at the local level and a Commissioner of Police as the head. That is why Gambia is very safe.
Again, go to Australia, their local governments are functioning, and in Canada too. And they form partnerships with universities, polytechnics and monotechnics to fabricate plants and equipment that are used in their farms and industries, unlike what we have in Nigeria that are so academic.
You have Mayor of London and his counterparts in New York…
All of them are performing well. Look, the Federal Government cannot give directives to the Mayor of New York. He generates revenue. In Gambia, the Mayor of Banjul took the Federal Government to court on the issue of revenue and he won. If you go to their council legislative parliament, you will marvel at their robust debate on all issues. Even if you go to Ghana, their local governments are performing very well.
It depends on the country. In some countries the local governments are classified into counties, mayoral cities, native administration or other nomenclatures, depending on the size, the economy, and relevance of such a subnational government. In India, the local governments are performing wonderfully well too. So, it depends on how you look at it.
So, how do you see the position of President Tinubu in this regard, and he also allayed the fears of the governors during the week?
Frankly, President Tinubu is moving towards global best practices in this regard. And within the context of our own democratic norms, that is federalism. Federalism is tailored to meet the need and purpose of the nation. For instance, in Scotland, if you are walking from one house to another, you will inform the local government. Social development in the local governments is so high. They are in the judicial system, health and all. Not just that, in the UK, it is the local government that issues drivers’ licenses, not the states.
I have been to Australia, and I have seen how their local governments are functioning. I am sure our leaders are traveling round the world and they are seeing how these councils are functioning there. I don’t understand why we are still where we are. I give it to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for being a courageous and empathetic leader. We can’t continue doing the same thing the same way and expect different results. The time to liberate the people is now.
If you want to fix Nigeria, you must fix the local government and have a bottom-up approach to governance and development. I also appreciate the Supreme Court for standing on the side of the Nigerians and the media which have kept us on our toes, monitoring NULGE and educating us, and our social partners. It has not been easy that we were not asking for better salaries but local government autonomy. And we thank God that at the end of the day, God has done it for us.
