The Supreme Court, July 11, finally cut the umbilical cord that connected state governments with local governments in a sort of mother-child relationship that, unfortunately, had turned problematic. An umbilical cord that wasn’t transferring nutrients from mother to child when the child needed them and in the required quantity. The baby was becoming badly malnourished and there was a mother who couldn’t care less.
The case was brought by the federal government, the senior partner in the nation’s tripodal power relationship. It challenged mainly Section 162(1) of the 1999 Constitution that created a joint account for states and local governments, but made the former the custodian and dispenser of what came into the accounts as allocations of the two parties from the federation account. The federal government considered the arrangement grossly unfair to the local governments. The states disagreed. However, the Supreme Court, in its judgement, made the following decisions: (1) the joint account must go because state governments were abusing it and holding back funds meant for the local governments. (2) The local governments were constitutionally an independent part of the three tier federal structure. (3) INEC would, henceforth, conduct elections into local councils, not the states any longer. Lastly (4), no more funding of caretaker local government committees created by state governments.
One thing we must realize though. The Supreme Court hasn’t said anything fundamentally NEW. What it has done is reaffirm a constitutional position that, for reason of political correctness, everybody, had ignored. Yes, the court did do SOMETHING new. It pointed out the contradiction in making the local government system independent and yet taking away its financial autonomy. An amendment will be required to resolve this hamstring.
Now, back to the Supreme Court’s decisions. Firstly, the joint account. The state governor has ‘colonized’ and turned it into a cesspool of unmitigated corruption. Personal gratifications, patronages to political “boys” and wardrobes and foreign travels for girlfriends all are thrown into it. The stench reaches the neglected local governments by way of decaying education, health and transport infrastructure. The pile of arrears of unpaid staff salary mounts every month-end, running to several years. Council chairmen, mostly picked by the governor, go to him cap in hand to beg for “something for my boys”. Secondly, local councils are supposed to be elected for a limited tenure. But in more than 70% of the states, their governors don’t allow elections to hold, preferring to run the local governments on a caretaker basis. This way, the governor keeps them on a tight rein. He appoints and removes the caretaker committees at will. No questions are asked. The governor also appoints the administrative secretaries, who are, to all intents and purposes, his eyes watching over uncooperative chairmen. All this to ensure the rot goes on and on…
Hopefully, someday, it will stop, now that only councils elected under INEC supervision will be funded directly by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC). I say hopefully because the court’s decisions will not come into effect immediately. One, they will have to be rolled into an executive bill and sent to the National Assembly to pass into law. This will take time. Secondly, the states are almost certain to try to stall the implementation of the judgement by asking the Supreme Court to review it. This also will take time. However, the good news is that the malformed umbilical cord has been severed and local governments now may breathe the fresh air of freedom.
