Port Harcourt — The National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) will have us believe, 50% of Nigeria’s problems have been solved with the judgement of the Supreme Court granting financial autonomy to our 774 local governments. “We believe that with the local government autonomy judgment, over 50 per cent of Nigerian problems have been fixed,” NULGE National President Ambali Olatunji gushed on Thursday soon after the apex court handed down its judgement. Without doubt, the labour leader has a right to swim in a bubble of joy over a matter that has lingered like the proverbial Sword of Damocles over LGAs in Nigeria. We all know what happened: Powerful state governors cornered financial allocations for local governments from the Federal Government and converted them to conduits of political control. Any council chairman deemed hostile (that is, doesn’t share the same political persuasion of the governor) will be starved of funds.
This anomaly cut across party lines. No state governor was innocent. The suit for financial autonomy for LGAs, instituted by the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi had all the 36 state governors from APC, PDP, Labour and NNPP as defendants. The judgement was unequivocal. Allocations from the federal purse are now to be paid directly into the accounts of government councils without being routed through any governor. The court also stopped governors from dissolving democratically elected officials for the councils saying this was a breach of the 1999 Constitution (as amended.) NULGE members had embarked on a nationwide fasting and prayer programme for a favourable verdict, and we can understand how they feel on the long-awaited victory.
They are not alone in celebrating the judgement. Former Kaduna Senator, Shehu Sani said; “The Supreme Court has freed the local governments from over two decades of captivity and systemic plunder by the states.” Other stakeholders hailed a landmark judgement that means well for development at the grassroots in Nigeria. But in expressing its relief and joy, NULGE appears to stretch our credulity on the import of the judgement. For example, Mr. Olatunji has declared that, with the judgement, “insecurity would become a thing of the past; joblessness would be addressed; poverty and infrastructural gaps would be reduced.” Really? What came over the labour chief? Do we get him to mean that, once local government councils start to get their allocations directly, the problem of insecurity will be over in Nigeria? I don’t believe him and neither do the millions of long-suffering Nigerians groaning under the effects of galloping inflation.
Besides the NULGE overstatement, it will also be naïve to think that the July 11 judgement is the silver bullet for all the challenges facing local governments in Nigeria. We will do well to remember that local government councils and their chairmen have been caught in the crosshairs of the Nigerian political system. They are the engine rooms of elections and state governors know that this level of government is the first and most crucial foothold on the ladder to power. The dictum is: “Install a local government chairman and see them work for you.” This is why elections into such councils are always won by the party in power in the state. What is happening in Rivers State will clear any doubt on my hypothesis. The rift between Wike and Fubara is being played out in the tenure of council chairmen because both men know that he who controls them is assured of occupying Brick House.
Again, if we talk of corruption in the handling of local government funds by state governors, what do we say of the council chairmen themselves? Greed and corruption in the Nigerian polity do not respect gender, age, status or tribe. We have seen that, anyone with access to power and public funds, will help themselves to it to the detriment of the people. In fact, there is a school of thought that the rejoicing of council chairmen on the Supreme Court judgement is that they are now free to do as they wish without the prying eyes of “Big Brother.”
I’m not trying to pour cold water on the enthusiasm of NULGE and other stakeholders on the importance of the Supreme Court judgement. Let’s be clear, this is big and bodes well for development at the grassroots. As the NULGE leader said, “financial autonomy for local governments in Nigeria is an idea whose time has come.” The judgement also means well to check the sacking of democratically local government councils at the whims of state governors. But make no mistake about it; state governors will fight back and any misuse of the autonomy by the councils themselves will provide ammunition to the argument that the past is better. So the judgement by the Supreme Court is the first blast of the whistle in a long and complicated political game of chess.
