When considered via the magnifying lens of Brian C. Smith's (1981) submission on the essence of the 1976 Local Government Reform, rationalizing what our Local Government functionaries and their "bosses" have converted the Local Councils into would be tantamount to building castles in the air. Smith (1981) submits that "the central objective in the 1976 reform of Local Government throughout Nigeria was to ensure that significant functions were decentralized to the local level such that the whittling down of local authority powers would be avoided. The tendency of the states to encroach on local government preserves was to be reversed which was why the Federal Government's policy document states that 'above all, these reforms are intended to entrust political responsibility to where it is most crucial and most beneficial, that is, to the people (at the grassroots)'. Appropriate services and, importantly, development activities were to be made responsive to local wishes and initiatives by devolving or delegating them to local representative bodies. The devolution of power would give local councils 'substantial control over local affairs' In other words, the reforms were intended to restore the 'functional integrity' of local government throughout the country."
It would be recalled that "the 1976 Local Government Reform is the most notable reform in the history and development of the Local Governments on the Constitutional platform of Nigeria." (Muazu Abdullahi et al, 2017). This gave credence to the standpoint of Local Government Authorities' reinvigorated relevance, just like the state government, in all matters relating to the creation of states, boundary adjustments, expansions, and even creation of Local Government Areas and Councils.
Local Government as the third tier of Government in Nigeria is the closest government to the people as it deals with the people from the grassroots. Its significance to the socio-economic and political life of our country can, therefore, not be over-emphasized. Therefore, a quick look at the functions of the Local Government Administration as spelled out in the 1999 Constitution in the fourth schedule and as enumerated by Muazu et-al, 2017, could enhance the conceptualization of the topic being addressed. The functions are:
a. The consideration and the making of recommendations to a State Commission on Economic Planning or any similar body on:
- the economic development of the State, particularly in so far as the areas of authority of the Council of the State are affected, and
- the proposal made by the said Commission;
b. Collection of rates, radio and television licenses;
c. Establishment and maintenance of cemeteries, burial grounds, and homes for the destitute or infirm;
d. Licensing of bicycles, trucks (other than mechanically propelled trucks), canoes, wheelbarrows, and carts;
e. Establishment, maintenance, and regulation of slaughterhouses, slaughter slabs, markets, motor parks, and public conveniences;
f. Construction and maintenance of roads, streets, streets lightings, drains, and other public highways, parks, gardens, open spaces, or such public facilities as may be prescribed from time to time by the House of Assembly of a State;
g. The naming of roads and streets, and numbering of houses;
h. Provision and maintenance of public conveniences, sewage and refuse disposal;
i. registration of all birth, death, and marriages;
j. assessment of privately owned houses or tenements for the purpose of levying such rates as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of a State; and
k. Control and regulation of movement and keeping of pets of all descriptions, out-door advertising and hoarding, shops kiosks, restaurants, bakeries, and other places for the sale of food to the public, laundries, and licensing for the sale liquor.
l. provision and maintenance of primary, adult and vocational education;
m. the development of agricultural and natural resources other than the exploitation of minerals;
n. the provision and maintenance of health services and such other functions as may be conferred on a Local Government Council by the House of Assembly of a State.
Worthy of note is also the fact that the roles above are performed exclusively by the Local Government as enshrined in the Constitution of the country while some other roles are concurrently performed with the State Government.
Some of the functions being concurrently performed by both the State and the Local Governments include the governance and administration of primary education, agriculture, health and other functions that may be conferred on the Local Government by the House of Assembly of the State.
Unfortunately, as lofty as the enumerated reformed goals of the LGAs are, they have not found their full applications in the governance of the Local Councils. In other words, as grandeur as this blueprint for grassroots development is, it eventually ended up being mere paperwork that is meant only for the records as they have no singular bearing with the practice in reality. It may be saddening but not surprising to note, therefore, that these Local Government Authorities have long become common appendages of the various State Governments in Nigeria.
A brief dissectional overview of some Local Government Authorities in Oyo State would elucidate and substantiate the standpoint maintained above.
Over the past two and a half decades, what has been the procedural practice which is, indeed, customary to the emergence of the Chairmanship as well as the running of the Local Government in what used to be the Ifeloju Local Government Authority of Oyo State, for example, is what I describe as the cult-like National Cake Beneficiaries' Appointment Committee System governed by some Council of Elders or Leaders within various political parties in the relevant grassroots areas across the Local Government's jurisdiction. This clique-based Council of Elders or Leaders, who are, themselves former political office holders and who are believed to have the 'hearts' of the state or even national political bigwigs like the State Governors and the Presidency in their political pouch have, primarily, been responsible for determining who the Chairmanship flagbearer would be on rare occasions of election and who would be handpicked on
common occasions of appointing Caretaker Chairmen. This same practice has often been applied to the candidature of other political offices across the constituency. I believe it is a general practice in Nigeria, anyway.
This practice has continued unabated to date. All through the periods of the metamorphosis of the nomenclature and central administrative seats and jurisdictions of Ifeloju Local Government Area which later devolved into Ibarapa Central and North LGAs and most recently into Ibarapa Central and North LGAs and Ibarapa Northwest LCDA, the governance positions of the LGAs/LCDA could be likened to an allegorical story of a town named Jẹkínjẹ (chop-I-chop). In this town, all the natives agreed that for food to be accessible to all folks in town, a custodian of food must be appointed by the king. No one must take anything out of his or her farm produce or hunted games. All must be surrendered to that one man who would determine who must eat and who must not. The King then delegated the authority to appoint such a man to the people of the town because their survival depended on their choice. The Council of Chiefs were, however, displeased with the King's decision and went to remind the King that the people's choice might not be his choice and that if that happened, the King and his family might die of hunger. The King then requested for their counsel. The Chiefs in their wisdom told the king to commit the task of appointing the right person into their hands and promised the King that whoever emerged would do the biddings of the King. The King was excited about such counsel and approved their proposal.
The Chiefs who were seven in number took charge of the seven clans that make up the town of Jẹkínjẹ with their divide and rule tactics chiefly driven by the offer of kickbacks to the clan heads. The clan heads also called in the compound heads and youth heads to partake in the offer so that they would all convince their people and households to support Jẹgúdújẹrá (the glutton) as the people's choice for the declared vacant position.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs had secretly met with Jẹgúdújẹrá to decide on the sharing formula for the distribution of the commonwealth of the people with the King topping the organogram and the Chiefs with Jẹgúdújẹrá making the second rung. The headships of the seven clans plus the compound heads made the third rung while a select few of the commoners made the last rung. Others had to depend on the good wills of those who made the sharing rungs. And so was it, that the town of Jẹkínjẹ which, hitherto was noted for its buoyancy and prosperity continued to live in misery.
Metaphorically speaking, State Governors are the Kings in their states. If they aspire for a second term in office, they only need to conspire with the leaders within the various LGAs in their state to influence the electoral process and tip the scale in their favour. Similarly, what any gubernatorial candidate would do is not different from the aforementioned. Once the LGAs are captured, the rest is simple. That is why gubernatorial aspirants often flood the Council of Leaders' hoods to establish the needed political fraternities with the Leaders to facilitate the "pocketing" of the LGAs for the fulfillment of their political ambitions. This is often characterized by the 'settlement' of 'VIPs' who are mostly the aforementioned leaders in the LGAs by the gubernatorial aspirants. The financial harvests would then trickle down to those calling the shots at the ward levels, the polling unit levels, and so on.
The truth is that the kind of democratic process needed for producing credible LGA Chairmen in Nigeria has been 'arrested' 'chained' and 'imprisoned' by the various State Governments in Nigeria. So, Oyo State's case is not an exception and in fact, it is a good case study. The blatant subversion of the democratic process in these LGAs is evident in the common practice of handpicking persons and installing them as Caretaker Chairmen by Governors instead of conducting free and fair elections to elect the true representative of the people in accordance with the stipulation of the 1999 constitution. Even the very "independence" of the State 'Independent' Electoral Commission is metaphorically dependent on the whims of Mr. Governor who doubles directly or indirectly as the employer of the State's Resident Electoral Commissioner. So, where do we hope to go from there?
Consequently, the essence of the 1976 reforms targeted at curbing the whittling down of local authority powers and the tendencies of states to encroach on local government preserves has been defeated by the common practice of our governors who have 'pocketed' the LGAs for the purpose of facilitating their perpetuation in power. They use them as 'pawns' in their political game of 'chess'. The LGAs, of course, would facilitate their first and second terms in office, facilitate the fulfillment of their Senatorial ambitions as well as service their vaulting quest of becoming the lifelong godfathers-in-council of Political Appointments Boards or Committees of their parties or regions.
Now, what have been the gains or otherwise of the governed, the people whose interests the LGA Chairman is supposed to serve?
Having been 'appointed' by the Governor with the aid of the 'Council of Leaders' who often come up with the list of nominees for the LGA cabinet who are not elected by the people of the grassroots to whom they are supposed to be answerable, their allegiance would automatically be switched to their 'employer' and 'benefactor'. So, the most visible 'gain' is the erection of gigantic and flamboyant billboards proudly conveying the accolades of Mr. Governor and adorned with the pictures of both Mr. Governor and the LGA Chairman spread across the length and breadth of the LGA at strategic spots for the noting of the employer, the Governor himself; instead of construction of drainage systems or provision of water system or embarking on any meaningful projects for the betterment of the grassroots.
Furthermore, the expected gains for the people at the grassroots on whose shoulder lies the mandate of choice as electorates had already been received at the diverse fora of electioneering campaigns so they have no moral justification to demand any other thing from the Chairmen of their LGAs.
Surprisingly, the same people whose commonwealth is being looted, pillaged, and stockpiled for personal use are often the same people, especially at the grassroots, urging and encouraging these looters to do more. In most cases, you would hear them condemning some LG political office holders for having spent a year without building/buying their own mansions while their mates have not only built mansions, they have also opened big filling stations and bought lands in Banana Island!
The mindsets of our people have been so twisted that they would attack and condemn people that are genuinely ready to serve and committed to bringing their experience and expertise to bear in tackling poverty and underdevelopment. They see those persons who are not members of such obnoxious cliques as common 'aliens' who have only come to jump the long queue of the 'chop-I-chop' assembly with many members waiting for his/her turn in the queue to access the 'delicious pot of soup' from the national kitchen!
Therefore, the cycle of underdevelopment, poverty, banditry, money rituals, kidnapping, cattle rustling, farmer-herders' clashes, vote-buying, political wars, and so on remain unbroken as the gains of the people at the grassroots and even in the cities. This is because, if the home font is unappealing, the city will, no doubt, look like an abandoned bush (B'ọ́ọ̀dẹ̀ ò dùn, bíìgbẹ́ n'ìlú ù rí).
The gains of the people have continually been the sights of exotic cars with deafening wailings of sirens conveying the
Chairmen through the dirty streets of the impoverished people while the people hail them and keep coveting the position as they wait for the time for their turn in the political queue where they remain continually stuck.
Initiating development is not rocket science but it takes a noble and honest heart propelled by an indefatigable urge to serve without expecting any gains from such to break the jinx and rekindle the hope of development.
The bitter truth is that we are neck-deep stuck in this messy political rot called "amala politics". We are completely entangled in the choking web of twisted mentalities. Mentalities like, 'chop-I-chop', 'vote-and-cook' ('dìbò kóo s'ebẹ̀), 'eat political meal' (jẹun òṣèlú), 'stomach infrastructure' (tìfun lọ̀ràn) and so on, so much so that the poverty of reasoning and rationality has beclouded our judgment in a way that has mutated us into becoming blind party loyalists for want of what to eat while we keep wallowing in the same poverty we thought we were tackling by soiling our hands and hearts.
If there must be that genuine transformation from the status-quo to a new lease of life for all, some, if not all of our political offices must run on a part-time basis with just a reward of reasonable sums of honoraria for such officeholders. Emphasis must be on reasonably cutting down on the costs of governance and the outrageous allowances and salaries of political office holders so as to discourage the practice of forcing square pegs in round holes.
The pedigree, integrity, experience, and the extent of community development involvement of aspirants must be subjected to rigorous checks and critical analysis to determine who eventually takes on the mantle of leadership in this country.
Finally, as lofty as the suggestions on the way forward above are, the clog in the wheel of their actualization is surprisingly the people still. Especially, starting from the National Assembly, the conduit that must present, debate, and pass such bills that would enthrone an era of transformation but which will surely work against such by ensuring that it never sees the light of the day so that their 'lootocratic' acts would not suffer an abrupt end. So, we are stuck. Except we hope to raise a new incorruptible species of leaders in the future. But that also is going to be quite herculean, judging from the number of bad eggs in town.
So, I ask, which way forward then?
Kindly drop your comments. Feedbacks are greatly valued. Thank you.
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©’Wale
Oladokun (Aug. 2020)
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