Mr. Wale Adedayo, chairman of the Ijebu East Local Government Area in Ogun State, has let the proverbial cat out of the bag. He wrote a letter to the former governor of Ogun State, Mr. Segun Osoba. In his letter, he alerted Aremo Osoba, of the octane-level executive shenanigan by the Ogun State governor, Mr. Dapo Abiodun, whom he accused of diverting N17 billion of funds belonging to the local governments in Ogun State in the last two years. 

Withholding, and diverting these funds, in Mr. Adedayo’s estimation, has stalled every possibility of development in the local governments – the very critical third tier of the federation, which the constitution established as its own strategic, independent unit or sphere of government. Let it be noted right away, that the Local Government Chair is the elected head of a government in his own rights. He is an elected official of state. He is not a minion of the governor. The governor of the state is not his boss. They share power constitutionally. The same constitution guarantees their various offices, just at different levels. The governor is to the Local government chair, primus inter pares (First among equals); just as the president is to the governor, primus inter pares. Not his boss. 

The president of the federation does not have the power or authority to withhold constitutionally guaranteed funds accruable to the states from the Federation Account. It would amount to a very serious constitutional breach. Under the same principle, a state government breaches the constitution by withholding federal allocations made directly to the local governments through revenue apportionments. I do not know how else to say this: the governor and the Local Government Chair are constitutionally equal. They are both elected heads of different tiers of government. They both answer to the electorate. Whereas the governor answers to the State Assembly, the Local Government Chair answers to the elected Council of the Local government. 

All these are very clearly and carefully laid out in the Nigerian constitution. But in the case of Ogun state, Wale Adedayo wrote that the governor has made certain that no funds came to the local government. Adedayo’s letter has also been sent to the EFCC and the ICPC, and he has called on them to investigate Governor Abiodun’s misuse of Local government Funds and unlawful diversion of same from the state’s Joint Accounts.

The sum of the current situation is that the courageous Mr. Adedayo is now a guest of the Department of State Security (DSS). They invited him to a meeting on Friday to answer questions regarding his allegations against the state governor. It was supposed to be routine. Adedayo heeded the invitation. But at the moment of writing this column, Mr. Wale Adedayo, Chairman of the Ijebu East local government, who has dared to accuse the governor of his state of diversion of local government funds, has been detained by the DSS. 

As reported by the daily online paper, Premium Times, Adedayo went in, and had not been let out by Friday when they filed their report. It makes you wonder. It leaves us to helplessly ponder how we now turn virtue into villainy and villainy into virtue in Nigeria. That is why Nigeria feels more and more like a criminal enterprise, because we turn the law, so clearly written for the protection of the state, into a joke. And it brings us to the curious drama that has unfolded since Mr. Adedayo “opened the books,” on the Ogun state governor.

First, that theater of the absurd. It would have been so amusing, if it were not so tragic to watch a group of local government chairmen, under the aegis of the Association of local government chairmen in Ogun state, led by a character called Babatunde Gazal. They filed into the Ogun state governor’s office in  Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, to render apologies on behalf of their colleague Wale Adedayo, who was however not apologizing and was defiantly sticking to the signature on his letter. 

But Babatunde Gazal, who claimed that the Ogun state governor has been releasing funds – N4.5 billion in May, N4.4 billion in June and July, and in August N5.4 billion – said, as quoted in this paper on Friday, “We came to see the governor to discuss the grey areas and today, all sides are better off. We have seen the lighter sides of the grey areas and all those issues have been resolved amicably. 

The governor has assured us that local government will continue to witness development till the end of his tenure.” So, what are these “grey” areas? What are “the lighter side” of these grey areas?  Mr. Gazal needs to speak plain English. But no. He seemed deliberately unclear. He seemed “spoken for” – like one  of those plugs whom governor Abiodun brought to orchestrate his own response against Wale Adedayo. 

I know my Yoruba pals often “dobale” to figures of authority and think nothing of it; but perhaps because of my own inability, being a thorough Igbo, to understand such an act, I was thoroughly disconcerted watching Chairmen of local governments publicly lie on the floor for the governor of Ogun state, led by Gazal, Chairman of Ijebu Ode Local government. It broke protocol, and it felt very surreal. But strange things happen in Nigeria. Suddenly, as part of the orchestrations aimed at silencing Wale Adedayo, members of his Council woke up to suspend hm for financial impropriety.I hope that it is not true.

But  I also hope, if it is true that Adedayo misused public funds while accusing Abiodun of same, that his own accusers provide enough proof to impeach him. But so too, governor Abiodun. He needs to be properly investigated by the Ogun State House of Assembly. That is the key institution given the constitutional authority to resolve this question. But can they rise up to their roles and do the job for which they were elected? There is great doubt about this because, if they could; if they were up to their tasks, during the finance session of the Ogun State House of Assembly, they would have read the annual  Auditor’s reports these past two years, and found any discrepancy in the disbursement of state fund, from the Joint Revenue where state revenue is warehoused. 

Diligent members would have raised questions on the floor. But many of these legislators are just clueless. By the way, that joint account, it is not a single signatory account. The governor is not the sole executor of the fund. All the chairmen of the local governments in a state are signatories. Here is what the constitution of the Republic says about it in section 162 of that constitution:

(5)The amount standing to the credit of local government councils in the Federation Account shall also be allocated to the State for the benefit of their local government councils on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly.

(6) Each State shall maintain a special account to be called “State Joint Local Government Account” into which shall be paid all allocations to the local government councils of the State from the Federation Account and from the Government of the State.

(7) Each State shall pay to local government councils in its area of jurisdiction such proportion of its total revenue on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly.

(8) The amount standing to the credit of local government councils of a State shall be distributed among the local government councils of that State on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of the State. The constitution of Nigeria is very clear on the status and financial independence of the Local governments. The Supreme Court of Nigeria has affirmed this independence.

But since the advent of this Fourth Republic, state governors have treated the local governments as mere appendages of the state, to be tolerated at best, but at worse treated like dependencies. Under the schedule of functions, the local governments have their duties very clearly  established by the constitution, and these have direct bearing to the economic and social life of Nigerians. The deliberate subversion of local governments by the states, especially by the governors is ill-thought, and it is illegal. 

The chief cause has been a very complicit House of Assembly,  which ought to make laws to compel the governors to disburse the funds to Local governments. The failure, even to conduct elections, and establish the local governments properly hasled to severe economic decline. 

In a place like Imo State, where Local government elections have not held for the past twenty years, and as a result, local governments have not functioned as they should, we now have a massive economic blight at the grassroots. The small businesses, the engine of local economies and economic growth have all nearly disappeared. It is tragic. And it is a ticking bomb. 

Nigerians seeking good and transparent government, and prosperity at the local governments, must push now, not only to get Governor Abiodun to give a full account of the local government funds he has allegedly diverted, but if indeed he has, to return the funds to the local governments so that they can function. There is the option also left to the citizens of these local governments: they should seek the courts to withhold payment of all state allocations, until the governors and the state houses of Assembly account for the Funds meant for the local governments. It should also be made law that states where local government elections do not take place should not receive federal allocations to the local governments until their elections hold, and proper governments established. 

Furthermore, the National Assembly should compel the Accountant General to begin to pay the local government allocations directly through the Central Bank of Nigeria to the Local governments, and end the joint accounts through which governors hijack LG funds without cause.