THE NATIONAL PUBLIC DISCOURSE WITH THE THEME:’LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY;HOW AUTONOMOUS?’

VENUE: AGIP RECITAL HALL, MUSON, ONIKAN , LAGOS
DATE & TIME: TUESDAY JUNE 11, 2013
CONVENERS: CMC Connect Ltd. and O’Ken Ventures

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Governor of the State of Osun





DISCUSSANTS: -Prof. Itse Sagay, SAN foremost Constitutional Law Expert

- Barrister Onyekachi Ubani, Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, Ikeja Branch

- Alhaji Abdulai Amadu Abukari- Consul-General of Ghana to Nigeria

- Prof. Franscis Oluyemi Fagbohun Senior Lecturer , Dept. of Local Government Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University , Ile-Ife

MODERATOR: Ms. Moyo Oyatogun ( Radio show host on Star FM 101.5)


SPECIAL GUESTS:
Former Provost Methodist Church
Iya Oge of Lagos
Members of the State of Osun Executive Council
Local Government Council Chairmen and Executive Secretaries from Lagos and Osun States respectively
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The national discourse is a platform created by the public affairs directorate of CMC Connect Ltd. (Perception Managers) to discuss burning issues of national and local importance to provide an avenue for the voices of ordinary citizens be heard in debates on national issues . This second edition was held in collaboration with O’Ken Ventures on the Theme: LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY: HOW AUTONOMOUS?

The Keynote Speaker Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola’s main assertion is that a true federalism presupposes a central/ federal unit and the states only therefore local governments and councils have their life from the states and cannot be autonomous from the states. Citing various countries operating under federal systems as examples, the proposition that local governments should get funding direct from the federal government is an aberration. Prof. Itse Sagay, SAN agreed with the keynote speaker and stated that this aberration has caused confusion and has resulted in imposing an unnecessary burden of uniformity in the structure of LGAs across the country whereas each state should have the flexibility to decide what numbers of local councils it needs and the structure of their governance based on the local needs and population.
Other discussants, Barrister Monday Ubani and Prof. Fagbohun though with divergent opinions from the keynote speaker and first discussants on the issue of autonomy still noted the imperfections in the constitution and the confusions it creates as well as the lack of impact from the large chunk of money that is retained by the Federal Government and called for urgent amendments to ensure that the people at the grassroots do not continue to suffer neglect . One issue where most speakers and participants agreed was that the Federalism as we have now in Nigeria is not true federalism and that the 1991 Constitution does not meet the current realities of the nation and must be amended. Other main points that arose are that the Local Government, the level of Government that is the closest to the people has largely been ineffective in Nigeria causing severe hardships to the people. The LG Chairmen present stated that the major inhibition is funding and it was suggested the LGs look inwards for alternative funding sources and self reliance rather than rely on FG allocation.
PROLOGUE – LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
By: Yomi Badejo-Okusanya – Managing Director CMC Connect Ltd. (Perception Managers)
The Local Government (LG) council is the administrative authority that is constitutionally empowered to govern local communities in each state of the federation. It is the closest tier of government to the people. Local governments deal with grassroots politics, maintaining law and order, providing basic amenities, constructing and maintaining local roads, supplying water, administering local schools, providing skills training and employment for residents amongst other constitutional obligations. The LG system was created by the military administration in Nigeria through the Local Government reforms in 1976. This stipulated the creation of the office of an Executive Chairman. The developmental stages of Local Governments in Nigeria include: the indirect rule system (native authority system/local administrator) which was in place between 1900 and 1950s; the period of the introduction of the British models of Local Government which was between 1950 and 1956; the period of decline of Local Government between 1960 and 1976; the Local Government during the military regime between 1966 and 1975. The Local Government in the 2nd republic came between 1979 and 1983. In 1985 we had some other reforms, but presently we operate under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria (1999 Constitution) which stipulates the separation of powers between the Federal, the State and the Local Government. We have had several reforms on Local Government and for some of them I would give you a background. The 1976 guidelines for LG reforms; the 1979 Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria; the 1984 Dasuki report of the Nigerian Local Government; in 1992, the hand book on Local Government administration; the 1989 Constitution and the 1999 Constitution which we presently operate. The current administrative structure comprises of an Executive Chairman, a Vice Chairman, the Secretary, Supervisory Councilors, Councilors, Heads of Local Government administration, Heads of Departments and administrative staff.
Some of the functions the Local Governments are as follows :
1. To bring governance closer to the people
2. To ensure administrative convenience
3. To ensure effective mobilization of resources
4. To maintain law and order
5. To provide agricultural services
6. Town planning
7. Creating markets, motor parks and gardens.
However, how have they fared so far in Nigeria? Research has shown that the Local Governments in Nigeria are not as operative and effective as they ought to be and one of the issues that have been cited is the question on the autonomy of the Local Governments. LGs complain that they do not have the autonomy that they ought to have. In Moyo Oyatomi’s program on Star 101.5 FM recently, it was said that in a particular state in the East, the Governor that is about to leave office later this year will conduct for the first time Local Government elections since he assumed office as the Governor. What are the reasons behind this? How can we improve the situation? How can we feel the impact of our local governments on the people? That is why we are here this morning and I hope that at the end of this exercise we would have been able to aggregate views that can be passed to the relevant authorities and they can form part of the materials that would be useful for the review that is going on at the National Assembly.
1st key note speaker – Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, Governor of the State of Osun
First of all, before I read anything I want to throw these questions to us – How were the Local Government some 25 years when the military brought in the “garrison federalism”, the unitary system of ruling that led to non-payment of salaries of Local Government employees and particularly teachers for several years. A coup had to happen in this country for teachers in primary schools to be paid their salaries in arrears of up to 36 months. That some states now abuse the systems now must not overshadow that fact. This brings us to the main issue of garrison command of federal government allocation to the Local Government.
Another issue is that there is a fundamental error in the entire structure of Nigeria as a federal structure . Apart from Nigeria , which other federation allocates money from the centre to other tiers of government? Government exists by its capacity to generate resources. Any government that cannot live on its income is not free to be. Unfortunately this is a blunder and an anomaly which we have taken as the norm here. We are now fighting and struggling for what should not be at all.
The question of Local government autonomy in the country has been a long running subject of debates among all segments of the Nigerian society. In a federation, the federating entities are the state and the centre. You lose the meaning of federalism when the basis of the federation is beyond these two units. Can there be a 3- tier federal structure? The answer is simply “No”. In a federal system, there is no provision for LG as a federating partner. To talk of anything outside the state federating unit is a fallacy, it does not exist – the only thing that exists in the federal structure are the States.
It is only in Nigeria, that a federal authority distributes money, this gives that whoever is distributing money must control everything and this has led to disastrous consequences.
In an ideal federalism, the issue relating to the creation, delineation and funding of Local Government authorities are within the powers of the State which have the political and juridical status that Local Governments do not have, while the Local Governments are merely administrative units and centre for developments. Local Government must not been seen outside the total authority of the state, once you do, you are standing federalism on its edge. Local Government have political legal existence in so far as the Constitution recognize them and even listed with the things to do, but because of the way we advance in our politics it is so in Nigeria. It is not so in India, Canada, America, Brazil, Australia, Malaysia etc. In other areas where federalism is in practice it is an aberration that Local governments are also beneficiaries of federal allocations. Nigeria is a peculiar case, just like the State and Federal governments, it is this existing arrangement that has made some to erroneously assume and argue that Local Governments are in the same level of autonomy as State governments and Federal government.
According to the Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo “this is a disruptive and abominable legacy of military rule”. It was the practice of the military to kill Local Governments. The FG also boldly arrogate the power to fund itself from the federation accounts just as it was funding the States on the Federation account; it then passed on this legacy.
In my opinion, the issue of whether Local Governments should be autonomous should rather be located within the context of LG relationship with the states. This view is supported by comparative studies from countries such as Brazil, Canada, America, Switzerland, Australia – wherever you have a Federal system, that is the order. These States do not give allocations to the local authorities ,componenst live on their resources and they are very comfortable. Switzerland has a 3-tier structure Confederation – Federal Government, Canton State government and the Municipality which is the Local government. The autonomy of the municipality is guaranteed within the limit fixed by Cantonian laws. The municipality is the creation of the Cantons, the Local government are not known outside the Cantons. Austria is another clear example of a Federal system where the Local Government is extensively recognized by the Federal constitution. The responsibility to regulate Local Government is mainly that of the States and not the Federal Legislature. Even in a place where there is a strict rule about power of the Local Government, it is still the State that controls the Local Government.
The question of autonomy cannot be meaningfully discussed outside the much larger issues of our institutions of governance in Nigeria. The reason is that it is within this context that the exigency of existence of Local government arose. For government to have real meaning on the lives of the people, the Institutions of governance have to be designed in a way that policies can be felt on the people that are being governed.
The Institutions of governance ensure that even when a majority of people cannot see the government, they can feel the effect of being under a government. At a forum I asked the audience, since Federal government receives about 51% of total accrual to the federation account , where is the impact of that share of 51%? All the States put together receive 26% from the accrual. It is that share that comes to the states that can be seen on roads in Lagos and efforts of other serious Governors everywhere, however where is our State share of the 51% that the Federal government collects? The Federal government is not felt anywhere. It is only felt in Abuja.
The government at the centre in many modern nations is merely a distant reality of any locality. Since it is almost impossible for the government at the centre to present itself physically to the people, the only way to make them feel their relevance is by making policies that would confer benefits on the people wherever they live. If the Lagos/Ibadan expressway is okay, we would feel the presence of the Federal government, but it is not. Other Examples are the roads linking Badagry to the border, the road linking Alimosho to Sango Otta- both are totally bad.
The Local Government in many countries share certain features which are as follows: they are the closest tier of government to the people, they help to bring government to the grassroots, and they also help to broaden the opportunities for participation in government. According to the 1992 Local Government reforms report, a Local government is a government at the local level establishing an executive council, established by law and exercising specific powers in defined area. These powers should give the council substantial control over local affairs to complement the activities of the Federal government and State government, engender the active participation of the people, their traditional institutions, and their local initiative and ensure that responses to local needs are maximized. However, as earlier indicated, by the nature of federalism there is an arrangement of devolution of power between Federal government and the federating units which are the States in our context. The Local governments are not and should not be seen as another level of government in a federal arrangement.
In the case of Nigeria we have a fundamental deform in the structure of our federalism which has negatively affected our developmental process. The 1999 constitution confers the power to create Local governments in the State and at the same time makes the Local Government so created invalid without the National Assembly’s endorsement – it is strange. The State should be free at will to create Local Governments or local management authorities at will because there cannot be Local governments outside the State. The Federal Government maintains an unhealthy stronghold on the wealth of the nation. The Local government cannot be autonomous as long as they are depending on the federal allocation.
All we need to do at the Local Government level is to put checks and balances in place and ensure that genuine democracy and rule of law prevails. Indeed, in a profound sense the problem of widespread poverty is not unconnected to the defective nature of our Federal system. Our federalism is extensively centralized. It is a well known fact that the structural defects have its roots in our colonial history. We must dispense with the structure of government that the military imposed on Nigeria because it is defective. It is unfortunate that the basis for many seeking political positions is to accumulate wealth rather than serve the people. In a deep sense, the pauperization of the population has a close relationship with the pauperization of the other tiers by the government at the centre such that very few other levels of government can survive without financial allocation from the federal purse. This is not just a political anomaly it is also an unsustainable economic morbidity. The third of federalism we operate is not only out of date; it is a major obstacle to our economic and political development.
It is my well considered opinion that the key to Local government autonomy is in the fundamental restructuring of our Federal system.
2nd Speaker – Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN)
Nigeria is a federation so the question of having autonomous Local government cannot happen. A local government is part and parcel of the state and technically should have no direct relationship with the Federal government. What we have in Nigeria already is an aberration, because first we have the number of Local Governments actually listed in a Constitution which is unheard of, it is a peculiar Nigerian phenomenon and then they involve the National Assembly in the creation of Local Governments, therefore creating confusion. What normally should happen is that Local Governments should be completely an agency of the State for development. It should not be mentioned in the Constitution at all. Every State should decide how many Local governments it wants to create, where it wants to create them, and fund them absolutely by itself. The Federal government is not supposed to participate in the funding of Local Governments. Nigeria has so many anomalies that is why we have so many problems in this country. The whole idea of even having a federation account is a problem. Why can’t the Federal Government have its own account and the State its own and then there would be peace. Why do we have to share from one account and we still say we are a federation.
If you look at section 7 of the 1999 Constitution, it gives an impression that States are all in all in terms of power and authority over Local Governments, the very fact that the Constitution is ordering States to create Local Government to me is already a constitutional limitation on State power. It is not the duty of the constitution to tell a State to create Local Government whether democratic or otherwise, it is the duty of the State to do it on its own initiative and the result is that we have the same type of Local Government all over the country. For example, we have an executive chairman, supervisory councilors and others in other words like a presidential system. Why can’t a State decide that it wants another system? For example, a State may want all its Local Government officials to be part-time or adopt a parliamentary system, or decide to have Local governments and even sub-Local Governments within a local government. These are things that states should be entitled to do in accordance with their circumstances.
The people who are making our laws have some form of insecurity in their psychology. States are supposed to be autonomous, they are the ones who are supposed to be autonomous not Local Governments and as part of that autonomy they are supposed to have power to create their own Local Governments and utilize those Local Governments for their specific and peculiar purposes. It is not this Straight-jacketing system in which 36 States have to do the same thing with their Local governments that we should be operating that’s why this country is upside down. If you look at the mentality behind this, I call it the Abuja mentality. The average Nigerian once he becomes elected from his State to Abuja, he immediately becomes hostile to his State. I have seen this mentality happening, if that there some war between Abuja and the State he belongs to Abuja and Abuja must oppress the State. A man, who probably was the best friend of a Governor a few weeks ago, just let him land in Abuja within one month he is coming up with policies.
How can the National Assembly dream of saying that they want INEC to conduct Local Government elections, what type of madness is that? On what basis, that the State governments have been rigging the election, haven’t the Federal Government been rigging the elections of INEC. If you say you want autonomy for Local Governments then kiss federalism goodbye, we cannot have the two. These our friends in Abuja who dream all the time of increasing federal power do not think, all they desire is to acquire more power. They want to oppress the States by taking over the Local governments under the trick of autonomy, they do not think of the eventual objective of that, it is the immediate gratification. When a government is planning, it must plan on long term basis. Nigeria is country of very many nationalities, languages, as Awolowo recognized this fact since 1947 “we can only be together under a loose federal system at that if there is any plan to amend the Constitution, we must have in mind that this is a federation and must consider how to strengthen federalism and to lose the tight grip of the centre which is suffocating the country.
Nigeria has to be federal, there is no other way. What we have now is a semi-unitary government. What the National Assembly should to be doing is to discover how to convert the zones into powerful regions which should be the source of governance giving the federal government a few things that they can manage, because they are the most inefficient government in the country. This is because they have too much money and too much power and because of that money there is a do or die struggling to go there. If we follow the correct policies and principles of federalism and let power and resources devolve to the state, just like it used to be up to 1966 with the regions. 20% of States resources were sent to Federal Government for running the Federal Government, then 30% was provided for division amongst all the regions to help the regions that were a bit economically weak, the State kept the remaining 50% for itself, that is the way it used to be; states are meant to fund the Federal government. We think the Federal Government is rich but what they have done is to strip the States of their resources, then become swollen with stolen State resources, this is an anomaly; and until this is corrected, until we have powerful States keeping their resources and being the ones supporting the Federal government, we will not have good governance at the centre.
The Federal government has no resources, if it is not Niger-Delta oil and gas, it is Lagos State VAT or the custom duties at the Port and companies’ taxation, if you analyze it properly, not up to five (5%) percent of the Federal Government funds actually emanate from the Federal government, they possess things collected forcefully because the Constitution was imposed on us. Many Governors spend 90% of their time Abuja hustling for money for their State because of this unhealthy system. Many Governors want to be on the entourage of the President forgetting that they themselves are Heads of States. Many Governors have given up the sovereignty of their States and their treating Nigeria as if it is a unitary state. Every state is autonomous, independent, entitled to its flag, anthem etc as we have seen at this event today. We have to resist this Federal government oppression because the resources it is carrying does not belong to it. We have to resist it, maintain our independence and fight for true federalism.
PROF. OLUYEMI FAGBOHUN – 3RD SPEAKER
Interestingly, my position is not going to tally with my Governor. I agree with a lot of things my Governor said earlier. I do not agree with the theory of the Governor about federalism. A federal system is a system where there are at least two tiers of government, it does not preclude having several which is the classical definition. Nigeria has been having so many things in our way which has been tagged “home grown” e.g home grown constitution, elections, doctrine of necessity etc. These are Nigerian concepts which you do not find anywhere in the world. If we now have our own Federal system which is home grown federal system, I would not oppose it, because I think our own federal system is home grown.
The question is, is Nigeria a nation? According to Awolowo “Nigeria is not a nation, it is an enforced association of incompatibles”. Are we compatible? What does our constitution say? The constitution was made by the military and everything about it is military. If you would agree with me that we could have a home grown theory, then what we have is not totally out of place, it is how we are running our own Federal system is what is creating all the problems we are having today. If we truly want to have a Federal system let us agree to it. If it is a federal system in the classical federalism idea, then Nigeria cannot be a federal system because we would have entities who voluntarily submit to the central authority. Are we truly running a federal system? The answer is capital “No”.
On the issue of resources, every resource we depend on in this country comes from one Local Government or State, so what right has the almighty Federal Government have to sit on the funds? These are questions we should address our minds to. I want to believe that what we are going through is historical; we started on a wrong note, and after the civil war we never got it right again. What Ojukwu wanted to do which every Nigeria thought he was a secessionist, that is where we are coming back to. Ojukwu knew what federalism was, he had an MSC in Political Science as at that time. He knew we cannot have a central government that would be using its power on all the other units. The other units are supposed to be on their own and run their affairs and the centre is supposed to be weaker, that was what he was working towards and many just believed he was a traitor. The basic problem with our federal system is that we started on a wrong note and since then we have never gotten it right.
Nigeria is an artificial creation so anything we do is usually artificial. Before the 1976 reforms various regions/states were running Local Government the way they felt. We had a system in the east that was even 3-tiers of Local Government then, it was working. After the 1976 reforms Local Governments never remained the same again because that was the time the issue of autonomy was introduced and with the situation of the economy as at that time a 100 million was released to Local Governments to take off and nothing happened until the Constitution of 1979 included it and Local Governments became a 3rd tier against the principle of Federalism. However, nobody raised issues, everyone thought it was perfect and would be the solution to our problems. The autonomy given Local Governments in 1976 in the 1979 constitution what was done with it? In the days of Babangida we saw military getting to the purse of Local Governments, what was done with all those millions? It went into private pockets and nothing for the masses at the grassroots levels. We are getting poorer daily and it is at the grassroots that the impact is felt most. So if the Local Governments are not performing, there is nothing the State can do. The State is a sum of Local Governments under their jurisdiction. If all Local Governments can be developed, a State that encompasses them would be developed, and if all States are developed then we do not need to talk about national development, the nation would be developed.
If truly we are practicing federalism with a 3-tier government what right does the state government have to hijack the funds belonging to the Local Government. Today the JAC arrangement which was thought to be a solution to penury in Local Governments is not working. The State government in some states just take everything belonging to Local Governments. The question is where do we go? We tried autonomy it never worked, why don’t we go back and examine our federalism. The Constitution is so confused. Sections 7 and 8 talk about Local Governments but all the power of approval rest with the National Assembly for approval. In a classical federal system, it consists of just the centre and the state. Under the state you can now have so many administrative units.
The Local Government is supposed to be a level that would be doing most of the work because they are closer to the grassroots but most of them are doing nothing except for the week that allocation comes and everyone is up on their feet. This is the Nigerian mentality. The question is not about autonomy but how do we make the system work? The solution is that we should streamline what we want from the Local Governments and let the Local Governments exist as a service centre so that they know the purpose of their existence. A service centre is a centre that carries out things to the grass roots.
4th Speaker- Barrister Onyekachi Ubani (Chairman of NBA Ikeja branch)
In as much as I believe that the Federal Government should not stifle the State governments I also believe that the State government should not also stifle the Local governments because we want the people to feel the impact of governance. Whatever I am discussing is without prejudice to my view that we should not engage in patch-patch method of amending the constitution. Nigeria desires a new constitution given by the people but whatever discussion I would have is within the context of the imperfect Constitution we are operating presently. My view is that even with the imperfect constitution the people that have been operating it have not been very fair to the people of the country. The Local government administration is plagued with several problems some of which we constitutional, some are man-made while some are self imposed.
Why everyone in Nigeria should be worried is that this is a tier of government that its governance affects everyone. No one is happy with what is going on there at the Local government council; my advice is that we have to do something very fast to correct the anomaly. There are basically 3 areas in the administration of Local government council that suffers abnormality which requires redress under the imperfect condition I have mentioned earlier. The on-going amendment should look at it and patch the constitution as usual, until we agree to give ourselves a people’s constitution.
Whatever suggestions we make here for the amendment is without prejudice. The 1999 constitution guarantees a democratically elected local government council whose tenure, composition and administration is determined by the enactment of a law by the various State Houses of Assembly. The supremacy of the constitution is not in doubt; it is the ground norm of all the laws in the land.
If the Constitution guarantees a democratically elected local government council at that level by all the states why is it that, the law is observed in breach because almost 80% of the State Governors are in breach of that provision of the constitution. The east remains the worst offenders. Abia, Imo, Ebonyi and Anambra are under caretaker committees. This is an impeachable offence and so sad that no heads have rolled in all these states. None of the Governors have been queried let alone sanctioned by their various state Houses of Assemblies. As for the people we have remained as usual docile watching all these absurdities playing out in our country.
Where there is a semblance of election, the outcome has always been very absurd, the various state independent electoral commission have elevated electoral fraud to another level by ensuring that the political party that is in power would retain all the positions, all the Local government council offices in the same political party. So even where there is election, we have never been guaranteed free and credible election conducted by the state independent electoral commission. Nigerians must arise and stop the rape on our constitution. It is a choice we have to consciously make. A law must be enacted to stop payment of federal government allocations to local government councils that are not under a democratically elected government. It is my own personal position and I know that majority of Nigerians would support this. I have listened careful to the explanation given by the Governor saying that there was a court action and because of the pending court action he does not want in any way to go ahead and constitute a different body that would conduct election in the state, that is a very good reason but there many other states in this federation that have not in any way conducted elections. The situation in Anambra state where Governor Obi for almost 8 years since he has been in power has run that particular state under the caretaker committee and he has planned for election in November when he is going in December.
The second issue is the creation of Local governments, where the constitution itself succeeded in creating mere problems than solving it. The 1999 Constitution created confusion by providing that National Assembly must give its assent to the creation of local government areas before the process can be termed complete. The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Lagos State V. AG Federation, that without the final assent of the National Assembly, the process of creating a local government area is clearly inchoate. Lagos State turned around and branded the created areas as Local Government Development areas and has been sharing money that is meant for the constitutionally recognized local governments to these LCDAs thereby short changing the people in the process. Prof. was saying that he is surprised that Local governments are listed in the constitution. If you operate a system that is purely skewed in a federal system that is not a proper federal system and where the federal government sits as superintendent in order to share resources to all the other tiers of government, of course it must list all the liabilities and assets and that’s why they have carefully listed out the local government areas so that at the end of the month they all come cap in hand taking their percentage. The Federal Government takes about 50% to themselves and we do not feel the impact of the money they have allocated to these tiers every month. So it is clear the reason why they are interested in giving assent to any Local government that must be created in every state because they want to know which one is our liability.
The third issue, is the issue of creation of a special account which we call State joint local government account created by the constitution itself and if the motive or the intention is to serve as a check on the excessive of the Local government chairmen and councilors in that tier of government, that singular intention has created a demon that is even bigger than a dragon and that has completely destroyed the administration of local councils in Nigeria today. Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution provides that in that account shall be paid allocations to the local government council of the states from the federation account and from the government of the state into that account.
In other words, two sets of money that should go into that joint account- federal allocation first and then state government owe a liability of paying part of their revenue into that joint account. Based on the provision of subsection (8) , various state Houses of Assembly have enacted laws for the application of this said provision. However, evidence has shown that such laws are usually made to further compound the already distressed financial position of the local government council in Nigeria. This results from various forms of deductions and diversions of funds from the State joint Local government account by the various state government. It should be noted that the State government is not intended to be a beneficiary of this state joint local government account, rather it is a trustee of that account, it is required to maintain the account for the benefit of the local government council by ensuring that the amount allocated for this 3rd tier of government is equitably and fairly distributed among the Local Government councils adhering strictly to the constitutional stipulated criteria. Report across the country indicates that most state governments are using this state joint account contrary to this particular intention. For instance, in Borno state, the State House of Assembly enacted a law called Borno State Joint Local Government Account Distribution and Financial Committee Law 2002. A committee was set up to administer this account. The committee is composed of the commission for Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs from the state, the permanent secretary in the ministry of local government and chieftaincy affairs, Accountant- General of the state, a representative of the Borno State primary education board, a representative of the board of internal revenue, the director of the local government chieftaincy affairs is the secretary of the committee and all LG chairmen. Key officials of the committee are State government officials and the committee was structured from the outset to the disadvantage of the Local government council. The law empowers the committee to effect the following deductions; 3% of the fund must go to the emirate council, 15% to personnel emolument to those who are retiring in the local government council, 1% for training fund and there is no training going on, 5% is known as stabilizing account, whatever that means, then 2% for administrative charge, 1.5% goes to the department of Local government, 0.5% goes to the department of the Local government council. This is called deduction and diversion of funds that is meant for the development of Local government council. It is reported that between March 2002 and March 2003 a total of 13.3billion naira was allocated to the Borno State Government. Half of that money went to all these deductions, so how can the local government operate? Since the money does not get to the Local government and due to all the deductions there is no effective administration at the Local government level. In Lagos State, the Land Use Charge which came out of the issue of tenement rate which is supposed to be a responsibility of the Local government council, the Lagos State has joined all these rates together and now collects the money with an intention to giving the Local Government the money realized and it is certain that any Local Government Chairman that argues at the next election he would not come back. So the Governors are in total control. We must have the Local Government administration who have some level of independence but are monitored. The State government should not be so powerful that they do what they like with Local governments and every Local government chairman must report to the Governor’s office which is not supposed to be so. My discussion has to do with the imperfect constitution however, we must balance all these and manage our country in a manner that all of us would be a beneficiary.
Alhaji Abdulai Amadu Abukari (Consul-General of Ghana to Nigeria)
To begin with, Ghana unlike Nigeria is a unitary state; it is not a federal state. Before the introduction of LG reforms specifically in 1988 when we initiated the decentralization programme, there was a system of government in Ghana where we had a top down approach; that means the system of administration was centralized. Decisions were taken in Accra and then forced down on the people. It was realized in the course of time that this system of government is not the best. It was not taking care of the actual needs of the people at the grassroots. So in 1988 the then military government i.e. the Provisional National Defence Council came out with a law called the PNDC Law 2007 and that started the decentralization and democratization process of decision making and that was the beginning of the bottle up approach instead of the top down approach.
Please allow me to analysis the nature of administration in Ghana with your kind permission. Ghana is a unitary state and at centre are the President, Council of ministers that form the cabinet and the Council of states. Ghana has a unicameral legislature that is called the National Parliament. Ghana is divided into 10 administrative regions; each region is headed by a Regional minister appointed by the President. The Regional minister is in charge of the regional coordinating councils. Below the regions are the local government structures called the districts. There are 3 types of districts:
1. Metropolitan districts- with a population of 250,000 people and above
2. Municipal district- with a population of 95,000 people and above
3. Ordinary district assembly- with a population of 70,000 people and above
Under the districts there are sub-districts structures. Before the introduction of Local governments, we had a centralized government and a number of deficiencies were identified which were corrected with the reforms.
Local governments may be defined as a local or community which attempts to play the decision making functions in matters of purely local significance from the centre to the grassroots where decisions are implemented. A synoptic view of the past Local governments in Ghana indicates certain common features which shapes the need for a new Local Government system, they include a weak structure of government where the central and Local government institutions were viewed as two separate institutions thereby marginalizing the Local councils, lack of effective political authority at the local level for development, lack of coordination among the central government agencies operating at the local level, delays in decision making because decision which were supposed to be taken quickly were referred back to Accra. Based on these deficiencies Ghana embarked on the decentralization program in 1988.
Article 240(1) 1992 Constitution provides that Ghana shall have a system of Local Government which shall as far as practicable be decentralized. The Constitution further provides that parliament shall formulate laws to enhance the capacity of Local Governments, to coordinate, manage and execute policies affecting the local people. Local Governments have been given a legal backing by the constitution. In order to operationalise the above the Local Government Act of 1993 was passed to outline in practical terms the political, administrative and fiscal mandates of the local administrations.
Ghana’s decentralization policy is designed to make the local administrations more responsible to local needs technically and financially capable of expending and improving service delivery and above all create a business environment to facilitate effective local economic developments. National development became the shared responsibility of the central government, the MMDAs and other key stakeholders such as the civil society organization, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and the community but the government continues to play the key role in this regard.
In order to examine the extent of autonomy of Local Governments, we need to look at the number of strategies adopted in the implementation of decentralization in Ghana. The political decentralization, administrative decentralization, decentralized development, planning and fiscal decentralization. The constitution of Ghana provides that the District Assembly is the highest political authority in the District and it has deliberative, legislative and executive powers. The District Assemblies’ autonomy is limited by Presidential appointees, 30% of the members of the Assembly and the district chief executives are appointed by the President. It is evident that there is no autonomy as far the operation of District Assembly is concerned. Looking at the autonomy of the Local Government authority in Ghana based on the political aspect, there is no complete autonomy because the President is supposed to appoint the District Chief executive who is the political head at the district.
The Constitution also provides that each District Assembly shall have a sound financial base with adequate and reliable sources of revenue. District Assemblies have 3 sources of revenue which are the assembly common fund, ceded revenue and other sources of revenue which are allocated locally by the District Assembly. The district Assemblies do not have complete financial autonomy because most of the resources that they collect are not enough to be able to execute the projects and programs they have to implement. It is the central government which gives revenue to the District Assemblies and the sharing formula is that 7% of the gross domestic products of the revenue that is collected by the nation is shared among the various Districts in Ghana. If you look at financial autonomy, it is another area that is a big challenge as far as the Ghana Local government system is concerned.
In conclusion, Local government reforms in Ghana and in Africa is moving in the direction of full decentralization consistent with the principle of subsidiary, also towards democratization and becoming agents for local and national development. The objectives of decentralization and democratization is development, all these things are therefore what we call developmental objectives.
Questions and Answers
Best Abumere
 In his opinion, a lot of the blame is on the National Assembly who ought to by now have taken the challenge of undoing the errors of the military by reforming the laws and Constitution
Smart Oluwole
 In his opinion , Local Governmenst should be totally automous so that they can perform their duties effectively
Charles
 He stated that the real question is that how can we make the Local Governments fit for purpose?
Wale Odulami- Chairman Ikeja LG
He noted the following:
 that the problem of the Local Government is funding
 A lot of LG funds expended on staff and recurrent expenditure leaving scarce resources to actually undertake projects . Ikeja LG receives an average of N230million monthly but about 100million goes to the payment of primary school teachers, 40million to primary health workers, 20million to council workers, while the rest is shared amongst the LCDAs to run services.
Ayodeji Emmanuel- Chairman Apapa LG
He noted the following:
 that there is no significant development initiated by the Federal Government in Apapa even though it has the port and many FG owned services which constitute a burden to the LG
Kunle Ayantoye- Ifedayo Local Government, Osun State
 His opinion is that it is not all about autonomy but that the revenue sharing formula must change.
Jubril (Journalist)
 He suggested that the focus should be on the problem of management of State and the Local Government Joint Account.
Aminat Oyewole (MITV Summit)
She noted the following key points:
 that the major cause of all these issues is the problem of leadership.
 that the positive effect of ACN in the States have made citizens get their desired benefits.
 that Local Governments should undertake poverty alleviation programmes for youths which would affect their entire family and the community in general to avoid people flooding the Local Government office soliciting financial assistance for personal matters
Magaret Nwosu ( from -Abia State)
Noted are as follows:
 Local Governments are not functioning and in some other places they do not exist.
 that the funds from the federal account is not getting to the people in the Local Governments but is being diverted to private pockets.
Mallam Ahmed
The points he noted are as follows:
 That the heterogeneity of Nigeria must be addressed and mainstreamed into policies
 That the government should correct the wrongs of the past and the people benefiting from the wrong system would never move for a change.
 The elite have a greater responsibility to show detribalized leadership
Bolaji Dada (Vice chairman Apapa LG)
The points noted are as follows:
 that this programme should be done outside the South western states because the Local governments in this zone are performing.
 that the days of illiterates as LG Chairman are gone, that these positions are now occupied by technocrats and experts who are using their knowledge for the development of the community.
 that everybody can easily walk into the office of the LG and access them but they do not have money to give people who come to them. However, the Presidents and other top officials that have the money are not accessible.
Olufemi Ogunseyi (Representative NUT state wing)
The points he noted are as follows:
 that the Local Governments have performed below par
 that the teachers’ position is that “JAC” should continue.
 that the government should try to consider strengthening the institutions rather than the operators.
Prof. Fagbohun’s response
The points he noted are as follows:
 that the problem is not the issue of autonomy but that of revenue funding.
 that the reliance on oil money is unfounded and that most states cannot be self dependent.
 that the major question is how can a state raise its own funds?
 that the Local government is a subset of the state and it has to remain like that.
Barr. Ubani’s response
The points he noted are as follows:
that there is no way the country can run this way and expect a good level of performance.
 that the solution is a reform of the constitution.
 that even based on the imperfect constitution the deductions should be removed and the Local Government should be monitored, and all that care taker committee set up in various states should be dissolved.
Alhaji Abdulai Abukari’s response
The points he noted are as follows:
 National development in Ghana is a shared responsibility between the central governments and the districts.
 The issue for LGs in Nigeria to tackle is not a matter of autonomy but to raise revenue and use it effectively to assist the citizens
Mr. Gbenga Ojo (O’ken ventures) delivered the vote of thanks on behalf of the conveners.
June 11, 2013