Making The LG System Work

Repeated calls for the scrapping of the local government system in Nigeria is beginning to wear some worrisome legitimacy; and the earlier the issue was properly understood and addressed, the better for all.

Apart from the fact that in a democracy, the voice of the people need to be taken seriously, the calibre of persons and organisations calling for the scrapping of the local government system can no longer be ignored. But it should also be understood that this call simply amounts to throwing away the baby with the bath water.

It is true that local government councils in Nigeria have failed to meet expectations of the people. Many of them have constituted themselves into serious drain pipes and avoidable minus on the concept of democracy and devolution of powers. But this is hardly the fault of the rural people who are supposed to benefit from the system.

Indeed, the failure of the local government system is well known to the authorities and no one has done anything about it. Even when some top political office holders were openly accused of benefiting from the “robbery” at the councils, nothing has changed.

With the exception of a few councils in the country, the local government authorities collect allocations every month and have nothing to show for such monthly allocations, either in form of infrastructures or human development. In addition to the fact that many of the local government chairmen divert a bulk of the resources of the councils to spurious ventures, the real demand of being in office, which is to give the people at the grassroot a sense of belonging, is not attended to.

Yet, the local governments councils are the closest government to the people. In addition to providing leadership and development, councils should be the birth place for responsible and representative leadership. And if democracy must take root in our country, the people at that level must participate in governance.

The local government system must be made to work in Nigeria because all over the world, the gains of devolution of powers cannot be overemphasised. Besides, the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) depends greatly on the functionality of local government areas, whose closeness to the population must be taken advantage of.

In Rivers State, the need to keep the local governments alive and viable is now being realised under the present administration. The state under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi has taken over the payment of primary school teachers that used to take the larger percentage of the council’s allocations. The state government has also gone ahead to build model schools and remove pupils from dilapidated buildings and tree-shade classrooms.

While we commend Governor Amaechi for this great gesture that has literally restored life to primary education in Rivers State, not much would change across the country if other state governments fail to take a queue or evolve ways of reducing the financial burden on their local government councils. Perhaps, the councils would also need to step up their internally generated revenue profile.

Meanwhile, the development of the political culture at the local government level must be encouraged. Allegations of chairmen and councillors being imposed on the people across the country is regrettable. Indeed, the manipulation of elections that work against the choice of the people should end.

Also critical is the need to give free hands to councillors to work. Paying a group of people every month, and heavily too, for doing nothing is against the law. That the councillors cannot exercise checks and balances at the local government level, let alone impeach the chairman can only make the system sterile.

Since only the State House of Assembly is empowered by the constitution to sack an erring local government chairman, it will not be difficult to imagine where the allegiance of the chairman would be. By effects, the local people who are supposed to be the real beneficiaries of the local government system stand little or nothing to gain. This, we believe, does not reflect true democracy.

While we insist that the local government councils should not be scrapped, we think the relevant laws in this country should be reviewed to encourage devolution of more power in the country, especially at the local level.