By Jude Atupulazi
Soon after the National Assembly okayed the Bill seeking to grant autonomy to the third tier of government in Nigeria, and compelling states to hold elections into that tier or have their allocations frozen, I had written that as far as we were in Nigeria, the governors would find a way to manipulate the system in order to continue milking the cash cow called local governments. Now, many governors who have not organized LG Polls have done so but that has only thrown up a fresh wahala. That wahala is the realization of my fears about governors manipulating the system for their own selfish interests.
The news making the rounds now, is how Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, through the State House of Assembly, has contrived to compel the newly elected (some call them selected) local government chairmen to be remitting certain amounts of money from their monthly allocation to a particular pool from where the state will determine how much will be given to the chairmen. In other words, nothing much has changed from the way the local government system operated before the elections, thus vindicating my earlier point.
While it is a pity that the first unpalatable tale on this matter is coming from my state, make no mistake about this: other state governors may as well have perfected their own plans to do same thing as Soludo has done. The bad luck of Soludo is only because his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, has minority members in the National Assembly. It is noteworthy that those making what the ruling party in Anambra may consider as noise are members of the Labour Party who constitute the majority of National Assembly members.
That Soludo was able to pull the feat he did in the State Assembly is because his party controls the majority seats there. If APGA were in control of all the National Assembly seats, we probably would never have heard the ”noise”. Thus, we should be thankful to Multi-party Democracy.
Before anyone starts thinking this piece is directed only at Soludo, let me quickly make it clear that I’m only using Anambra as an example. Remember I earlier said this manipulation is not restricted to Anambra alone.
There is no governor in Nigeria today who will not like to be controlling local government allocations. But that is quite tragic because the intention behind the granting of Local Government Autonomy is for the government in the third tier to be able to take decisions on its own without being manipulated by the state. This makes for rapid development of the grassroots.
I’m sure that the local government chairmen in Anambra will be secretly liking what I’m writing as it will benefit them but they won’t have the courage to come out in the open to confirm it in order not to be called saboteurs.
Yet, the fact remains that state governors should allow the decision of the Supreme Court on Local Government Autonomy to stand. It is for the interest of the people. But I’m not quite so sure that the current chairmen will be too bothered. I say this because I’m not sure again if any of those chairmen during their campaigns told the people what they would do when they came into office.
How could they have said so when they knew they would end up being led by the nose by the State Government which will still be calling the shots after ensuring that only their yes members were returned by the State Independent Electoral Commission, SIEC? But thank God for Multi-party Democracy, as I earlier stated, which ensures that there’s still a semblance of what we know as checks and balances.
Let’s pause and read a news report of how an LP lawmaker, Senator Tony Nwoye, and some of his colleagues opposed Soludo’s and other governors’ move to tamper with LG allocations.
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Senator Nwoye Moves to Block Governors’ LGA Fund Tampering
Senator Tony Nwoye of the Labour Party (LP), representing Anambra North, raised an alarm on Wednesday that some state governments were attempting to alter the Supreme Court Judgment on Local Government Council Autonomy.
During Plenary, under Orders 41 and 51 of the Senate Standing Rules, he presented a motion stating that some state Houses of Assembly were enacting laws to hinder the implementation of the Supreme Court Judgment.
He noted that some state governors were using their State Houses of Assembly to pass laws requiring local government councils to remit funds into a State/Local Government Joint Account, which would then be managed by the State Government.
Senator Nwoye informed the Senate that his motion was co-sponsored by ten other senators. He specifically alleged that certain governors were already enacting laws that would compel local government councils in their states to deposit funds into this joint account.
Before the Senate entered a closed-door session, Senator Adamu Aliero (PDP, Kebbi Central), raised a constitutional point of order during the debate, urging the Senate to halt further discussion on the matter.
He stated, “The Supreme Court Judgment is enforceable across the country. There is no need for us to be debating anything that has to do with it here.”
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, supported Aliero, referencing Section 162 (6) of the 1999 Constitution. As senators began to move toward Akpabio for personal contributions, this prompted the Senate into an emergency closed-door session, after which resolutions were made.
Following the debate, the Senate called on state governors to ensure the full implementation of Local Government Autonomy, particularly in the utilization and disbursement of funds to the councils.
The Senate resolved to initiate amendments to Sections of the 1999 Constitution to grant Full Autonomy to Local Government Administration across the country. It also urged State Houses of Assembly and Governors to comply with the Supreme Court Judgment regarding Local Government Financial Autonomy.
The Supreme Court had granted autonomy to all 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria following a suit filed by the Federal Government, represented by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.
The above is a story on how the state governors’ moves are being opposed by lawmakers. It is my hope that they succeed in stopping governors from further emasculating the third tier of government. The autonomy of this tier is for the good of the system. It is not for parochial interests. This is the time for governors to rise above pettiness and greed and do what is right for the system because when the system thrives we all thrive.
Should this not work, then the much touted autonomy of the third tier of government will remain what it has always been: a farce.
…And will the bad portion of Amawbia Express Road Finally be Tackled?
On Thursday morning as I went to work, I saw two caterpillars parked on the side of the bad portion of road leading to the Amawbia Express Flyover, ostensibly to begin repairing that portion. For months I had carried this palaver on my head as though that bad portion was in my room. But then what else should I be doing if not pointing out worrisome issues? That is what my job demands of me.
Initially, after our editorial on this terribly dilapidated portion, the state government attempted to repair it but after a caterpillar had dug up the earth on that portion, it vanished and nothing was ever heard about it till this time.
Like I keep saying, that road belongs to the Federal Government but largely used by us who are the state government’s people. The state Governor also uses that road while going home. I wondered if the Governor was not seeing the condition of the road which had become a nightmare to road users.
I had thought that the usual thing in such matters is for the state governor to repair such a road and await reimbursement later from the Federal Government. What I could not understand about Soludo’s refusal to repair that road was that he himself had earlier repaired a similar bad portion at the Immigration Junction in Awka which is now very good. If he could do that, why not also do same to the Amawbia portion?
I was recently told by a commercial driver that the Governor now goes home through the Awka Old Road to avoid that bad portion in Amawbia. I had quickly posted it on my Facebook page and Whatsapp forums with a view to embarrassing the state government. Yes, I wanted to embarrass them, so that they could be jolted into doing the needful, as sometimes it takes such embarrassing stories to get things working in this country, after trying to cajole.
You can therefore imagine my relief when last Thursday morning, I once again saw caterpillars apparently being mobilized to that road. By the time you read this, work may have either begun there or finished and it will be to the glory of the state. That road is where those passing through Anambra State use and when they see such dilapidation they will conclude that the State Government is doing a poor job. But if by the time you read this the road has been repaired, it will be a good advertisement for the state government.
I always believe that when certain things begin to go bad efforts should be made to get them right and not wait till they get worse and then gulp big money. Again the government cannot be levying commercial transporters N2,500 a week, whether they work or not, and allow the roads they use to be in bad conditions.
I rest my case as I observe developments on the road.
