Supreme Court has vindicated us –Ambali, NULGE President • SIEC is a charade, INEC should conduct LG elections –Ekiti NULGE chair • Blame it on constitutional lacuna –Kwara APC chairman Facts have emerged on how governors of various states of the federation cripple the 774 local governments in the country, denying them administrative and financial autonomy, thereby preventing them from discharging their constitutional duties.
Sunday Telegraph’s investigations indicated that governors literarily suffocate the councils, imposing candidates, dissolving elected council administrations, usurping their duties, choking them financially and running them as appendages of their offices.
Recall that the Supreme Court on Friday nullified the dissolution of elected local government chairmen carried out by the Governors of Oyo and Katsina states, and appointment of caretaker committees in their place, declaring it “illegal, unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect,” directing that they be paid all their entitlements until the end of their tenure.
Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution guarantees the local government system through democratically elected local councils. Accordingly, every state government shall, subject to “Section 8 of the Constitution, ensure their existence under a law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.”
While the Financial Intelligence Unit directed that state governors should never hold joint accounts with local governments but to ensure their autonomy, reports from various states of the federation indicate that the governors never honoured this leading to the paralysis of local governments.
The Chairman of NULGE in Ekiti State, Comrade Olatunde Olaseyi, said that governors view the local governments as extension of their wives’ kitchen, adding that this has impacted negatively on the development of the structure of the councils, stunted the growth of democracy and has left the masses holding the short end of the stick.
“The state governors’ bids to perpetuate illegalities, they impose their puppets on the councils, with the aim of subverting the process of government in order to satisfy their selfish desires. The overbearing attitude of the governors has affected developments at the grassroots and subsequently jeopardise democracy.”
He added that the respective State Independent Electoral Commission’s management of election at the state levels leaves much to be desired. “SIEC is a creation of the governor and he who pays the piper dictates the tune.
From experience, SIEC dances to the tune of the governor and appoints cronies of the governor and when they get there they would not be accountable to the people.” But All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman in Kwara State, Alhaji Tajudeen Aro, absolved the governors of blame, stating that a constitutional pointing fingers at a lacuna created by the 1999 Constitution.
“That Constitution that is still being operated completely removed the independence of the local governments by placing them directly under the state governments with ambiguous clauses that super imposed the state over the local government. Except if there is an amendment that allows the INEC to conduct local government elections, remove all laws that make local governments subservient to the state, the problems will persist,” he said.
The National President of NULGE, Comrade Akeem Olatunji Ambali, on his part demanded full political and financial autonomy for local governments, insisting that the success of Nigeria depends on the performance of the third tier of government.
Ambali who described the appointment of caretaker committees by governors as “illegal, unconstitutional and an aberration” and called for the scrapping of state electoral commissions, arguing that, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be in charge of local government elections.
Meanwhile, the National Chairman of NULGE, Comrade Akeem Ambali, has described the Supreme Court judgment nullifying the sack of local government chairmen and councilors in Oyo and Kastina states as a step in the actualisation of local government autonomy in the country.
This came as the Mr. Abbas Aleshiloye, the chairman of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), in Oyo State, one of those whose tenures were affected by the dissolution stated that the verdict represents victory for democracy.
Ambali insisted that no governor should have the ultimate power to sack democratically elected local government leadership in the country, and advised Governor Makinde not to go ahead with the local government election in the state scheduled for May 22, saying as a law abiding citizen, the governor should suspend the election for now.
Ambali said: “Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) hails the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. It is a judgment in affirmation local government as a tier of government; it is a judgment that upholds the tenets of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Section 7-1 (a) which guarantees democratically elected system of government at local government level.
“Our believe is that no tier of government is inferior to another and if the Federal Government has no power to directly sack the governors, a second tier of government from office, governors should have no right to sack democratically elected leadership at local government level.
“It is time now that if we are serious about having a positive democracy, a democracy that represents the sovereignty of the people because people have the political power to determine who leads them.
“No governor; no President has that ultimate power to impose their cronies on either local government or the state. That is why NULGE is in front agitation for the actualisation of local government autonomy, because once we have autonomy this is affirmation of political autonomy for local government.
“We believe that some of the key actors at local government level must also go ahead and approach various courts in the land to affirm that INEC must be the unbiased umpire that should conduct local government elections so that the elections in local governments should reflect the supreme will and the political aspiration of the people.”
He lamented that it was unfortunate that the governors and other state collaborators have stifled the development of the third tier of government by hijacking the funds and statutory functions of local governments. He said: “We see this as attempt to license pilfering and diversion of local government funds by governors and their collaborators.
The abysmal performance of local government system in Nigeria is occasioned by continuous rape of local government system by hijacking the political and the financial autonomy of local governments thereby crippling their performances,” he said. https://www.newtelegraphng.com/rape-of-democracy-how-governors-are-choking-lgs/Lalasticlala |
