Supreme Court judgement on local govt autonomy: The casualties by Kunle OYELEYE
Kunle OYELEYE is a journalist and football administrator.
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Professor John Bekeredemor Clark in his 1970 poem titled “The casualties,” expresses in an objective way the tragedy of the 1966 Nigeria Civil War and enlists the categories of victims of the irrational war. He opines that not only those who died in the warfare were the only sufferers. In Clark’s point of view all classes were aggressors, aggravators and victims in diverse dimensions. In the piece the litterateur conducted his castigation in a subdued, controlled and modulated tone because the casualties were one too many already.
Recently, the Supreme Court of Nigeria ruled that Federal Government should pay all monies standing to the credit of local governments in the Federation Account directly to the coffers of local governments to be managed by democratically elected officers of the third tier of government.
The seven justices panel of the apex court in the judgment delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim ruled that the 774 local government councils should independently manage their own funds.
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The landmark judgment sent ordinary Nigerians into wild jubilation but unfortunately, a section of the casualties among the ruling elites have been expressing discordant tunes. Though, among the people who have benefitted from the ‘cashjack’ in the past have continued to hail the judgment like the current Defense Minister and former governor of Zamfara state, Bello Mohammed Mattawale. Mattawale described the judgment as a significant milestone in promoting grassroots development, good governance and democratic decentralization in Nigeria .For the chairman Nigeria Governors Forum and governor of Kwara state, Abdulrasak Abdulraham, it’s a huge relief on the governors. With facts available the Kwara governor has not conducted any local government election since his over five years as governor. Also, the Oyo state governor, Engr Seyi Makinde has set up a committee to review the implementation of the judgement. Makinde said the judgement had created lacuna that will throw up different challenges at the local government councils, he said he inherited a local government administration that was heavily indebted with backlog of salaries and gratuities and has relieved the councils of all debts, so, he advocated home grown laws for solutions to ensure transparency and mitigate effects of poverty on the people.In its opinion, the pan Yoruba social-political group, Afenifere, described the judgement as conspiracy against democracy. In a statement jointly signed by Pa Ayo Adebanjo and Justice Faloye, titled, “Tinubu and grand conspiracy against democracy and true federalism in Nigeria,” the association said the Supreme Court played to the gallery in delivering such judgement.
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Now, having seen feasible and cacophonous tunes on the matter, I want to concur with both classes in their submissions and views. For the hailers, I concur because if the funds are properly harnessed it will spark rapid development at the local levels, increase local participation in community affairs, and politics at the local levels for national development,for there are people who carved niches for themselves in the time past as local government chairmen, councilors and so on. In my state, Chief Ayantayo Ayandele, Peter Odetomi, Alao-Akala, Segun Dokun Odebunmi were able to impact their communities and implanted their names on the lips and hearts of generations to come, for the public service rendered and delivered stunningly, and they were equally rewarded with greater public offices. Ayandele became a Senator, Odetomi a Commissioner, Alao Akala, governor, and Segun Odebunmi, 3 time House of Representatives member at the Nigerian National Assembly.
However, for the naysayers to the judgement, I concur to certain extent with their opinion because some local government chairmen with their career counterparts will become potential prison people (PPP) with their sheer recklessness and racketeering, moral decadence in office and uncontrolled power intoxication. In connivance, they will perpetrate all these with reckless abandon to the extent of not being able to pay common salaries and allowances from the huge allocation and internally generated revenues. The Nation Newspaper (March 14, 2013 edition) reported with an explosive caption, ‘ COUNCIL’S AUTONOMY? NO, TEACHERS SAY’. Teachers expressed opposition to local government autonomy during a National Assembly constitution review, because teachers went for months without salaries when the councils were responsible for their salaries until the states took over the payment before they had relief .The teachers maintained that councils’ reckless behaviours stagnated education during the period and contributed to incessant industrial actions so much that classrooms became defecation points, smoking bay and centres for orgy of sex for hoodlums and touts .The issue of 7.5 percent contributory pension that was not being remitted as at when due was equally advanced as one of the reasons for their opposition to local government autonomy.
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It is instructive to note also that Governor Makinde of Oyo state was emphatic in his reaction by saying he inherited a heavily indebted local government administration, it is irrefutable fact that many staff of the councils had stopped going to the office in Oyo state because the local government offices had become ghost of its self but when Makinde came he revived the councils and staff were promoted and converted accordingly. He rectified the problem he met on ground, that’s genuinely commendable. Thus, can the government curb the repeat of this impunity from the councils as the purse is returned? What the Federal Government has done is taking back the government to the people after several years of disconnection from the grassroots, there’s too much power in the state, the autonomy if genuinely handled and proper election is conducted by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it will definitely pave way for genuine candidates who are well known and trusted by the communities prior electioneering, not some kind of executive selection and elimination by substitution often carried out by governors.
In view of the foregoing, in reference to the prologue, it is pertinent to ask at this juncture who are the casualties of the judgment delivered by Honorable Justice Agim Emmanuel? It is evident the casualties in-chief are the governors who have been using the funds in the coffers of the councils to cushion the effects of their presumptive low funds in the states to carry out projects in the state’s name instead of the councils’, just as one of the themes in the poem which is inevitability of change – the governors have to learn to take the change as it comes for the sake of the local communities the eyes of the state may never be pry to and to prevent the integrity of the councils, because the councils have lost their powers and integrity especially to Houses of Assembly which summon and suspend the chairmen with reckless abandon for reasons best known to them. Other casualties of the judgment are the people and their communities with visibly obvious imageries of wanton collapse and neglect of the environment created by the hijack of local governments’ funds. Employees of the councils who were not promoted and denied allowances and benefits due to lack of funds and mismanagement are causalities as well.
In my final submission out of my conviction, I believe if the autonomy is properly monitored and utterly given, the local governments will deliver its mandate of planning and implementation of a wide range of services for the betterment of the local communities and municipalities, since the councils’ collapse is responsible for security breach in the agrarian communities where foods are grown occasioned by incessant banditry and killing of farmers which is currently aggravating hunger and starvation. Therefore, if the casualties-in-chief take the judgment in good faith the gaps of social inequality and collective misfortune orchestrated by the protracted hijack may be urgently addressed. They must be cognizant of the reality that the casualties are not only those who were directly affected by the judgment.
