- Want INEC to conduct polls as Govs, godfathers battle over LG control
- Stakeholders condemn installation of cronies as chairmen
- Withhold allocations to states failing to conduct credible polls – SERAP tells Tinubu
Stakeholders in Nigeria have expressed concerns over struggle by state governors and political godfathers to install their cronies as chairmen and councillors of local government areas in Nigeria, saying there may not be real autonomy that would translate to growth in the local councils.
While some political analysts were optimistic that the continuous dominance of state governors may not rob the local government areas of expected development and dividends of democracy, they canvased for sanitation of the electoral system for the local councils, describing State Independent Electoral Commissions as sham and fraudulent.
For them, SIECs are easy tools in the hands of state governors to manipulate polls and pave the way for the emergence of their stooges as local government leaders.
They, therefore, advocated that the constitution of the country should be amended to give way for the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct elections into local government.
The interests of governors and other key political players in some states have been fueling violence.
For instance, in Rivers State, explosions destroyed buildings and other property at the All Progressives Congress Secretariat in Rivers State a few hours before the local government elections in the state on Saturday amid tension from supporters of former Nyesom Wike and his successor, Sim Fubara.
Similarly, the Police Command in Akwa Ibom confirmed a fire incident at the office complex of the Akwa Ibom State Independent Electoral Commission in Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area following the local government election crisis.
“Since the local government autonomy became an Act, we have discovered that Nigerians might not be able to hold on to that autonomy because it will still be that governors and godfathers will still, at the end of the day, be in effective control “
A political expert, Mojeed Animashaun, in an interview with The Point, said with the turn of events as regards conducts of local government elections across the country, the real autonomy expected in council areas would be elusive.
He said virtually all the state governors have mapped out plans to ensure that their candidates emerge as chairmen and councillors of councils, saying with such development, the funds accrued to local governments would still be controlled by state governors.
Going by this, he argued that rural communities may still remain underdeveloped as LGA chairmen would still be going cap in hand to state governors for funds.
“Since the local government autonomy became an Act, we have discovered that Nigerians might not be able to hold on to that autonomy because it will still be that governors and godfathers will still, at the end of the day, be in effective control of local governments. Since they have seen that it is illegal to maintain caretaker committees, the governors are rushing to conduct elections in local governments and they know that once they have their own people there, they would still have a measure of control but that control cannot be challenged again because they have allowed local government to go through election. So, whatever the character of the election is, whether it is free or not doesn’t matter to them. Once SIEC makes pronouncements, it becomes binding but we know that all the people that have emerged as chairmen and councillors will be under effective control of the state governors and majority of them, if not all, are of the ruling party.
“So, the state governors are still the godfathers at local government levels now. Nothing will change. We can only commend the President for midwifing the local government autonomy but the reality is that nothing will likely change. Look at the state legislature, are they truly independent of the executive arm of government, they are not. So, on the surface, it will seem as if we have autonomy at the council areas but the real autonomy is not in practice but they are under the control of the executives.
“The solution is no longer at the purview of law, it will be at the purview of those who control the government. Their attitude towards the local government will determine real autonomy. Even if the money is transferred directly to local government accounts, the chairmen cannot still have control of it. So, it is just the attitude of those who have been elected as chairmen. They should see their positions as being held in trust for the people, and not for governors,” he said.
A lawyer and Professor at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Tunji Ogunyemi, who spoke to The Point, argued that dividends of democracy are not good roads and other infrastructure, explaining that notwithstanding that governors are still indirectly in control of local government administrations in Nigeria, rural dwellers could still experience development.
Ogunyemi said, “The attempts by politicians to install their own clones or to even clone themselves in the respective local government of their states, particularly the governors of the state, is not a strange thing. After all, governors have been trying to clone themselves by ensuring that they have successors that would be favourable to them, although, they have not been that successful.
So, this issue of local government elections is just part of politics. There is nothing wrong in ensuring that people who will take over the control of government in some parts of the country are people who are in some camps.
“The only thing that is wrong is when people go and do illegalities, commit crimes. For example, wanting to install people with the use of force, by the use of means other than the due process of the law.
People have associates and loyalists in different parts of the offices created by the constitution is part of something legit. The only thing is if you use the instrument that is not prescribed by the constitution. And what are the instruments prescribed in the constitution, they are four – one, that you must be a member of a political party; two, that you must be sponsored by that political party; three, that you must have your name on the voter register and that register will now be the guide for the election; and four, that you must vote for the person, not that you will install a person by simply just saying, I appoint you Supervisory Councillor in A,B,C, D. That one is subverting the law and it is illegal.”
He added, “The truth is that we actually need to route them back; amend the Constitution to empower INEC to conduct elections by having its own state version. After all, there are Resident Electoral Commissioners in all the states and Resident Electoral Commissioners can be made to conduct elections in Local Government.
In other words, we must have a consequential amendment to Section 9 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Section 162 sub section 6 to 9 of the same Constitution.”
Sharing similar opinions with Ogunyemi, and election monitoring specialist, Bukola Idowu, pointed out that without restoration of sanity in the conduct of council polls, no meaningful achievement would be recorded as regards autonomy in LGAs.
He called for scrapping of SIEC maintaining that elections in local governments have been sham.
“Yes, we can still see the gains of the local government autonomy because we cannot judge with Rivers State. Other states that have had their elections were not like that. Rivers State is a peculiar state because there are a lot of political interests. You know even before the election, there have been issues in Rivers State between former governor Wike and the present governor and I think that is the power play going on but if you compare the rest of the 35 states, it is a totally different case.
“So, what we need to do is to see how we strengthen the local government and if you ask me, one of the things we think is better is to scrap all these State Electoral Commissions. Like what the National Assembly is proposing, I am not saying that they should set up another body, but just imagine the INEC conducting this election, you are not going to have all this drama. Some people believe the SIEC is loyal to the governors, and some other people want to use the federal might to also come and do these things that they are doing. But, the most important thing is that in principle, local government autonomy will bring development and that is just the case but that cannot happen until we get the election into local governments right.
“With the present SIECs that are controlled by the state assemblies and the governors, we may not eventually get there on time. INEC should add conduct of local government elections to their responsibility. Since we have the electoral body in place, why not conduct elections? For instance, Rivers State, Edo State, Kogi State, Bayelsa State, Kebbi State, all of them have INEC offices, so what are they doing? What exists now is that you have INEC offices in the states and you also have the State Independent Electoral Commissions in the states, two electoral bodies and yet they are saying that they want to set up a national election body that is going to look into elections in local government areas and some people are saying no, but that is what is already happening because you have the INEC and State electoral bodies in the states.
“As of now, tell me what the INEC office is doing in Rivers State? They finished conducting elections last year. So what exactly are they doing that they can’t conduct that election? So, we cannot just be duplicating efforts and wasting resources because we already have INEC which also has offices across the local government areas. So, why can’t they conduct LGA elections? We understand Edo and Ondo have off-cycle elections but places that don’t have off-cycle elections, what is their INEC doing that they cannot conduct local government elections?” Idowu, the Executive Director of Kimpact Development Initiative queried.
However, Animashaun, a lecturer at Fountain University, differed, saying that allowing INEC to conduct elections at local government level would negate the federal structure.
According to him, “INEC conducting elections would bring some change in terms of quality and integrity of the local government elections because what we have seen so far that the SIEC are doing is just a sham. But, it will be a complete negation of federalism if INEC is allowed to conduct local government elections. We cannot sacrifice the autonomy of the local government on the altar of good elections by saying INEC should conduct elections, that would just increase the dominance of the Federal Government over local government affairs.”
“What we can do is that civil society organisations can take their oversight to that level but ensuring that elections are conducted fairly but pushing the conduct to INEC will negate federal structure,” he maintained.
Meanwhile, some analysts have said that with the controversies surrounding local government elections, the number of election petitions would increase.
They disclosed that the judiciary would be more overwhelmed by the growing election matters that would emerge after conducting local government elections in the country.
“Electoral litigations will surely increase with the controversies surrounding local government elections. If you look at the data after the 2023 elections, there were 1,209 election cases. Before then, it was just like 1,800 in 2019, in 2015, it was around 600, and last year, it was 1,209. So, it is going to be increasing. We just conducted elections in Edo and the people are going to courts already. If we don’t sanitize our electoral process, the courts will be having lots of work to be doing and that is not going to augur well for our democracy,” Idowu stated.
Sharing his thoughts with The Point on Local Government autonomy, a socio-political commentator, Charles Ndubuisi, praised President Tinubu for supporting Local Government autonomy.
However, he said that despite the Supreme Court judgment that gives autonomy the go-ahead in the country, it would still be difficult to achieve.
“Local Government autonomy is one of the reasons why Nigeria must give Tinubu a chance in office. The President supports autonomy. He proved that he is indeed a democrat by ensuring that our LGs can breathe. So, whenever the story of LG autonomy is written in this country, the President’s name will feature prominently.
“But autonomy will be hard for Local Governments to fully achieve even though the Supreme Court has given the go-ahead to that. This is because the claws of many governors have already sunk deep into the Local Government system and it will be difficult to bring those claws out.
“Look at what is happening in Rivers State. You would think that it is because Fubara and Wike truly love the Local Governments in the state, hence their actions in support or against elections there.
“It is selfish love they have. They are fighting for their political future in the state. 2027 is around the corner and only the Local Governments can water the ground well for any of them that are planning to pocket a state,” he said.
Moreover, Ndubuisi added, “Let me shock you a bit. Many governors who are serving their first term now know that they will not win reelection if the Local Governments are taken out of their hands.
“It is control over Local Governments they want and they are ready to shed innocent blood for it.
“You mentioned godfathers who struggle to win polls and put their supporters as Local Government chairmen. What did Nigerians expect?
“You can see that the fact that they put their supporters as councillors and chairmen shows, without doubt, that they have a hidden agenda.
“This is why I enjoin Nigerians to take the Local Governments seriously now. Many Nigerians wave Local Government business aside because they consider it unimportant. It has to change now.
“Nigerians must learn to ask questions about the Local Governments.
They should know who their chairmen and Councilors are. The era of ‘siddon look’ and ‘e no concern me’ are over. Nigerians should wake-up concerning who governs them at the Local Government level.
“And you also mentioned the dividends of democracy. What most Nigerians don’t know is that there are some roads that come under the purview of Local Governments. But because Nigerians know next to nothing about Local Government administration, they usually think that such roads belong to the state governments.
“Nigerians must, therefore, not allow any godfather to dictate to them those who will govern them. This is so that they can hold those who govern them accountable. Anything outside this will unfortunately be the beginning of the end for them when it comes to the dividend of democracy.”
Withhold allocations to states failing to conduct credible LG polls – SERAP tells Tinubu
Meanwhile, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has asked President Bola Tinubu to withhold allocations to states that have failed to conduct credible local government elections.
“A democratically elected local government council does not and should not exist at the pleasure, whims and caprice of governors or their ‘political godfathers’.”
On October 5, elections were held at the grassroots levels in some states like Rivers, Benue, Akwa Ibom, Jigawa. Most states, however, are yet to conduct local government polls and still collect money from the federal allocations for their respective local council.
Displeased by the development, the group described the action of some state governors as wrong.
In a statement on Sunday, SERAP Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, specifically wants Tinubu to “direct Mr. Olawale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, to immediately withhold federal allocations to states that have failed and/refused to conduct credible local government elections, and to ensure that any allocations from the Federation Account is paid only to democratically elected local government councils and no other body or institution.”
Oluwadare urged the President to “details of the number of local government councils that have directly received federal allocations and whether the councils are democratically elected, as provided for by the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and ordered by the Supreme Court in its judgment of 11 July 2024.”
“Your government has the obligation to enforce the Nigerian Constitution and to prevent public wrong, including by state governors,” he said.
“A democratically elected local government council does not and should not exist at the pleasure, whims and caprice of governors or their ‘political godfathers’.
“Your government also has the constitutional obligation to ensure accountability for the spending of federal allocations and immediate compliance with the judgment by the Supreme Court and the rule of law.
“Local government councils are entitled to a direct payment from the Federation Account to promote good governance, people’s welfare and development of local government areas across the country.
“Where the rule of law reigns, political expediency ought to be sacrificed on the altar of the rule of law so as to guarantee the continued existence of institutions created to promote social values of liberty, orderly conduct and development.
“We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within 7 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest.
“It will be entirely consistent with the rule of law to immediately withhold federal allocations to states that have failed and/refused to conduct local government elections and to ensure that any allocations from the Federation Account are paid only to democratically elected councils and no other body or institution.”
