Not minding the motive of the parliamentarians or the sentiments of the organised labour, the state houses of assembly were right to have rejected the bill on local government autonomy in the current amendment exercise of the 1999 Constitution. According to the National Assembly, which has directed the transmission of the approved amendments to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), the proposed law on financial and administrative autonomy for LGs is among the nine bills the HoAs declined. The repudiation is at the heart of true federalism and is consistent with the best global traditions in federal states.
The major argument for LG autonomy in Nigeria is that state governors exercise undue control over LGs and manipulate them to suit their whims. Consequently, there has been a long-running battle at different levels and periods to excise them from the grip of the governors. This argument is one-sided. For a start, it abnegates federalism. In a true federal system, there are two main levers of power – the centre and the federating units.
For this, the Stockholm-based think tank, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance says, “Federal systems have at least two levels of government, the central level and a second level that includes territorial entities into which the country is divided, e.g., regions, states, provinces.” As such, the United States, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, and other federal systems run on this formula.
Having taken away the power over LGs in the US from the Federal Government and granted it to the 50 federating units, there are some 85,000 LGs in the United States. They are even named according to the taste of the states. The largest LG there is the county (called a parish in Louisiana or a borough in Alaska).
The Australian Local Government Association says there are 537 LGs Australia-wide. In Canada, there are three tiers of government – federal, provincial, and municipal. Section 92(8) of that country’s Constitution Act, 1867, says, “In each Province, the Legislature may exclusively make Laws in relation to … Municipal Institutions in the Province.” There are about 3,700 municipal governments in Canada. This is the beauty and freedom that go with true federalism.
In Nigeria, this element is upside down. The 1999 Constitution committed a fundamental blunder by listing and recognising the 774 LGs in it as a tier of government. This is an absolute error of the heart by the framers of the constitution. It repudiates Nigeria’s 1963 Constitution. This provision has not resolved the crisis of development at the grass roots level. It will not until the constitution is amended properly amended on federal lines.
At this point, it is disappointing that the NASS is chasing shadows in trying to give Nigeria a sound constitution. In this LG bill, the Ninth NASS under Ahmad Lawan (Senate) and Femi Gbajabiamila (House of Representatives) are no better than the military, which bequeathed a dissonant constitution that exhibits little understanding of federalism to the country as it hurriedly departed the political stage in 1999. It is worse in that the Ninth parliament budgeted N4 billion – N1 billion per legislative year of its lifespan – for this charade.
In all, the NASS transmitted 44 amendments to the 36 HoAs for concurrence in the Fifth Alteration Bills 2023. The state houses of assembly passed 35 of the bills, which have now been approved for transmission to the President.
Nine of the bills were shot down at the state level. So much time had been wasted since NASS transmitted the drafts to the states early in 2022. In December, Lawan lamented that the fifth alteration exercise might fail because most of the state houses of assembly had not responded by that time.
Unfortunately, most of the approved 35 bills transmitted to Buhari for his assent are mundane; NASS excluded the major bills that could have enhanced Nigeria’s democratic practice. This is a cardinal error on the part of NASS at a time there are grave ethnic, religious and separatist agitations threatening the very soul of the fragile union.
Among other things, the 35 bills are just to change the name of some LGs, including Afikpo North and Afikpo South (Ebonyi State) and Obia/Akpor (Rivers), Atigbo (Oyo) and Egbado North and Egbado South LGAs (Ogun). The amendments split the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation into two; if Buhari signs it, there will now be an office of the AGF different from the Minister/Commissioner of Justice at the federal and state levels respectively.
The bills also amended the constitution, devolving power on railways, prisons (correctional centres), national grid system, airports, railways, and fingerprints, identification, and criminal records. These provisions on devolution are integral to true federal practice.
The most important bill excluded from the fifth alteration is the state police. The state houses of assembly even gave it as their condition to pass the LG autonomy bill. Still, NASS preferred to toe a unitarist line. That is illogical.
The essence of federalism is the devolution of the security system. This obtains in federal systems like the US, and Australia. With Nigeria under the siege of insecurity from Islamists, bandits, Fulani herders, gunmen, kidnappers, oil thieves, cultists and robbers, state police would have gone some way in bringing about sanity.
As it is, the centre is too powerful in Nigeria. This is fuelling the inordinate desire of politicians for the do-or-die politics to become president. The powers of the centre should be whittled down to the minimum, allowing the states to become independent economic units.
Therefore, the amendments should be quickly reworked to accommodate state police and resource control. The amendments should review the omnibus Exclusive Legislative List in the constitution. Currently, there are 68 items there. Most of them, especially police, mines and mineral resources control by the centre, public holidays, stamp duties, and marriages, should not be there.
