By Olu Fasan

FEW things provoke righteous indignation in President Muhammadu Buhari like the state of local governments in Nigeria.  Ask him about restructuring, he would always narrow down the issue to the treatment of local governments. “The local government system has been killed,” he said in his Arise TV/ThisDay interview in June last year.

Well, President Buhari is right. Local governance has been debased in Nigeria. Every attempt to grant autonomy to local governments has faced stout resistance from state governors who assert the right to exercise close oversight over them. The latest of such resistance was the governors’ opposition to President Buhari’s Executive Order 10 of 2020, which grants financial autonomy to local governments as well as state legislatures and judiciaries.

In the Arise TV/ThisDay interview, President Buhari said that local government chairmen “have been compromised,” insinuating that they were being bullied by state governors to surrender much of their statutory allocations under duress. President Buhari said: “You as a local government are supposed to receive N300 million. A document is given to you to sign that you have received N300m, but you are given only N100m”.

These are weighty allegations of extortion, of state governors putting a gun to the heads of council chairmen to take money belonging to local governments. Even if the facts are not exactly as President Buhari stated them, the incontrovertible truth is that state governors treat council chairmen with utter contempt and ride roughshod on the financial and administrative autonomy of local governments.

But while President Buhari’s righteous outrage is justified, his visceral opposition to restructuring discredits his posture. The problems of local governments can only be tackled as part of restructuring the Nigerian Federation. It’s, therefore, not credible for President Buhari to lament the position of local governments and, yet, reject restructuring.

Well, before we discuss how to strengthen local governance, let’s talk about its value. This is important because, apparently, Nigeria lacks a deep philosophical understanding of the significance of local governments. Yet, the principle of local government autonomy is based on centuries-old ideas about the universal values of local governance.

First, local democracy. John Stuart Mill, a strong defender of local governments, argues that strong local governance fosters strong local democracy. Thus, anyone who values democracy must value strong local governments.

Elsewhere, many prominent state and national politicians cut their teeth in local politics, and some local government leaders or mayors are renowned. Hardly so in Nigeria. Furthermore, in other climes, the party that controls a state often doesn’t control most of its local governments. But in Nigeria, the party that controls a state almost always controls all its local governments. Why? Well, because there’s no robust and competitive local democracy.

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Then,  local development. Alexis de Tocqueville, another 19th-century champion of local governance, posits that, because of their local proximity and knowledge and the local specificity of their services, local governments can unlock local development better than central and state governments. As the tier of government closest to local people and organisations as well as to traditional institutions, strong local governments can tackle insecurity, stimulate the local economy and reduce poverty. Indeed, the World Bank once said: “Poverty is best tackled at the local level”.

So, robust local governance matters. Which is why strong, autonomous local governments are integral to any civilised society. Sadly, in Nigeria, local governments are emasculated financially, hobbled administratively and diminished politically. But what’s the way forward?

Well, we must first recognise that, in a federal system, local governments are a matter for state governments, not the Federal Government. Just as states are the federating units of the Federation, local governments are the constituent units of the state.

Therefore, the 1999 Constitution is wrong to list, in section 7, local government functions, thereby mandating uniformity, which violates the federalist principle of diversity. It’s also wrong to specify, in Schedule 1, the number and names of local governments in each state, undermining the states’autonomy to create local councils.

Nigeria claims to have copied its system of government from the US. But in America, local government is a matter of state law under Dillion’s Rule. Each of the 50 states has its own constitution and grants “home rule” either in all matters or in some matters to their local governments. What’s more, some states conduct referendums on what additional powers to grant to their local governments; in other words, the people themselves decide!

So, the starting point in tackling the problems of local governments in Nigeria is to treat local government as a matter of state law, not federal law. Thus, any new Federal Constitution that emerges from restructuring Nigeria should make no reference to local governments. Second, just as the Federal Constitution defines and governs the relationships between the Federal Government and the state governments, state constitutions should define and govern the relationships between state and local governments.

However, as I argued last week, the current state structure is not viable and should be replaced with the zonal structure, based on the six geo-political zones. Thus, instead of state constitutions we should have zonal or regional constitutions. Each region should create its own local governments and determine their functions, based on the principle of subsidiarity, and after a referendum. The functions of the local governments, their fiscal autonomy, their relationships with other tiers of government within each region, and critical safeguards for accountability, should be expressly defined in the zonal or regional Constitution.

Last year, the South-West governors proposed that each of the six geo-political zones should have its own Supreme Court. While the Federal Supreme Court will be the final arbiter in all disputes between states and the Federal Government, the zonal Supreme Court will be final court in all disputes within each zone, including those between local governments and other institutions within a region. Brilliant!

Restructuring is the solution to the problems of local governments in Nigeria. The structural and constitutional arrangements outlined here will guarantee their autonomy. 

Vanguard News Nigeria