Effective Local Government System in Nigeria: The Need to Further Amend the 1999 Constitution

Having considered and seen the inefficiency and rot that characterize the entire 774 Local Government and the Local Government system in Nigeria, it will be safe to conclude that this tier of government have performed abysmally. This failure cannot be unconnected with the provisions, practice and application of the country’s grund norm-the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. A careful and decent reading of relevant constitutional provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) relative to the operation and existence of the Local Government in Nigeria reveals an intentional and carefully crafted corporate and legal conspiracy to arm-twist this system into utter malfunction and ultimately herding or riding it into extinction.

The extant Constitution as presently constituted portends and contains calamitous ingredients which negative the continual existence, effective and efficient democratic service delivery, by the Local Government, to the forlorn and abject citizens of this country at the countryside. The present constitutional dispensation consigned and condemned the Local Government system to the whims and caprices of the state and expectedly the state (that is the Governor and House of Assembly) plays ludo with the destiny of this arm and the mass of our rustic citizens whose well-being and hope largely depend on the goodness of this system.

Local Government system, being the last type of government very close to the people at the grassroots, need to function optimally without let and hindrances and without state organized plundering and looting of its economy and resources. The present practice where the state governors in concert with the members of the State Houses of Assembly strip local government of their monthly federal allocations and criminally hijack their internally generated revenue and other means or mechanisms of generating same must be addressed immediately through the instrumentality of the amendment of the 1999 Constitution relative to the relevant provisions on local government. This work shall articulate these constitutional provisions that require urgent review now that the National Assembly has embarked on another constitutional alteration exercise.

Meaning of Local Government The ordinary meaning of local government is as the name denotes; a government at the rural area for the rural people who reside at the rural area. However, there have been various definitions given by several scholars and agencies. According to Halim and Adelabu, the concept of local government administration,

involves a philosophical commitment to democratic participation in the government process at the grassroots level. This implies legal and administrative decentralization of authority, power and personnel by a higher level of government to a community with a will of its own, performing specific function in relation to the needs and expectation of the people at the local level. A local government council is an institution whose operation address the needs and aspiration of the citizenry and also extends the administrative and political control to the community.

In the same vein, Adeyemo defines the concept as

A political subdivision of a Nation or Regional Government which performs functions which in nearly all cases receives its legal power from national or regional government but possesses some degree of discretion on the making of decisions and which normally has some taxing power

On the other hand, the United Nations office for Public Administration sees Local Government as:

A political subdivision of the Nation (in a federal system) which is constituted by law and has substantial control of local affairs including the power to impose taxes or to exact labour for prescribed purposes. The governing body of such an entity is elected.

Finally, the Guidelines for Local Government Reform of 1976 define Local Government as:

Government at the local level exercised through representatives councils established by law to exercise specific powers within defined areas. These powers should give the council substantial control over local affairs as well as the staff and institutional and financial powers to initiate and direct the provision of services and determine and implement projects so as to complement the activities of state and federal government in their areas, and to ensure, through devolution of functions to these councils and through the active participation of the people and their traditional institutions, that local initiative and responses to local needs and conditions are maximized.

Based on these motley definitions, it shows that local government is a multi-dimensional concept. These definitions depict that local government council is a government at the grassroots level of administration meant for meeting peculiar grassroots needs of such a people. According to Lask, H. J;

We cannot realize the full benefit of democratic government unless we begin by admitting that all problems are not central problems, and that the result of problems not central in their incidence requires decision at the place and by the person, where and whom the incidence is most deeply felt

Therefore, local government system, as a third tier of government and based on the people’s culture and expectations are usually created so as to draw government closer to the people.

The Murtala/Obasanjo Military regime of 1976-1979 became a watershed in the local government system annals in Nigeria. This regime set up the Dasuki Committee on the Reformation of the local government system across the country. The Dasuki blue print became known as the “Local Government Reform of 1976”. This reform marked the evolution and turning point of the modern development of local government system in Nigeria. This reform was achieved after extensive consultations at all the levels of the country. The reform conceptualized the local government as a third tier of government with its statutory share of allocation direct from the federation account and to exercise control over its spending. More importantly, the Dasuki Reform provided for democratically elected local government councils. This reform produced or created a uniform local government system across the country.

The Babangida administration (1984-1993) introduced some additional reforms to supplement the Dasuki reform. The main thrust of Babangida anchored reform was to accord greater autonomy to the local government system in Nigerian. Some of the reforms included the abolition of the Ministry of Local Government, the establishment of executive and legislative arms in the councils and the direct federal allocation to the local councils without passing through the state government. Also, the statutory allocation of the local government was increased from 15 percent to 20 percent. Nevertheless, later the Abacha Administration of 1993-1996 revised some of these reforms of IBB regime.