By Augustine Akhilomen

The recent rush to conduct local government elections by some state governors in the country has further heightened their desperate attempt to have total control of elected council chairmen and by extension, also have direct access to the allocations they received from Abuja.

This rush indeed, became evident after the July 11 Supreme Court judgment, which opened a three-month window for states to organize elections or risk losing federal allocations for their local councils. It led many states to schedule elections hastily. This hasty move to conduct elections to the local councils even extended to Anambra State, which hadn’t held local elections in more than 10 years.

The Supreme Court said explicitly in its judgment that using caretaker committees to run the affairs of councils violates the 1999 Constitution and ruled that state governors have no power to dissolve democratically elected local councils and replace them with caretaker committees.

The Apex Court further barred state governors from receiving, retaining, or spending local government allocations, describing the practice as a violation of Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution.

It also mandated that local government funds be managed directly by local administrations. Currently, most local councils have three-year tenure, and in some states, it is only two.

Interestingly however, some observers are of the view that most of the elected council chairmen in the country were directly handpicked by the state governors, which means they will be responsible to the governors and not to the people at the grassroots.

“You can easily see that most of the candidates that vied for chairmanship positions across the country were handpicked by the governors. It’s business as usual or job for the jobs. There is therefore no way they would work against the political leaders who sponsored their elections, Tunde Popoola, a Lagos based lawyer.

Popoola said that this rush, even though it’s constitutional, will not ultimately be in the larger interest of people at the local level that it was meant to serve. Rather, according to him, it will be difficult for the council chairmen to be independent of their governors. “Those that want to be too independent will pay the political price”, he said.  

At the last count, at least 16 states (Benue, Akwa Ibom, Abia State, Ogun State, Plateau, Kaduna), Kano, Cross River, Bauchi, Borno, Delta, Enugu, Gombe, Kebbi, Kwara, and Imo) have conducted local government elections, with results that observers and analysts say reflect a predictable pattern: ruling parties swept every council seat in nearly all cases.

In Kano, the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), which only came to power last year, won all 44 local governments; the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna, Kogi, Sokoto, Benue, Jigawa, and Kebbi took every council seat in their respective states. Similarly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bauchi and Enugu and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Anambra monopolized the council polls.

Notably, the PDP’s hold in Akwa Ibom allowed Senate President Godswill Akpabio’s local government, Essien Udim, to go to the APC in what observers called a strategic concession by Governor Umo Eno.

In Rivers, where the ruling PDP refrained from participating due to internal disputes, the Action Peoples Party (APP), widely viewed as the party of choice of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, won 22 of the 23 local government areas, while the Action Alliance took one seat.

According to Yiaga Africa, a prominent civil society organization, the majority of the country’s most recent local elections are a travesty of democratic elections and fall short of electoral integrity standards.

In a statement, Samson Itodo, the executive director of Yiaga Africa noted: “To harness the benefits of the Supreme Court ruling granting financial autonomy to local governments, it is crucial to extend electoral reform to local government elections to liberate state independent electoral commissions from the stronghold of state governors by safeguarding their operational and financial independence.”

Critics contend that these results merely cement the control of ruling parties at the local level, transforming elections into “coronations” for the governor’s chosen candidates. For those who had hoped the Supreme Court ruling would end governors’ interference in local councils, the reality has been disappointing.

A renowned political analyst, Professor Kamilu Sani Fage, joined the call, stating that even if INEC or another national body takes over local elections, true autonomy requires giving local governments a four-year tenure, like state and federal governments so that all elections can be held simultaneously.

“This approach will prevent governors from assuming control over local governments. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) effort to monitor local government finances might be circumvented by governors. Therefore, the only solution is to remove local government elections from state control.”

“Governors control their political parties, as the major parties make governors the leaders in their respective states. This gives them both constitutional and political power. Local government elections, as they stand, are merely ritualistic.

“Following the Supreme Court ruling, governors have changed tactics: they ensure their allies are in power through the conduct of sham elections and make sure their chosen candidates win. This way, they retain control over local government finances.”

Echoing this sentiment, another analyst, Dr. Aminu Hayatu, said that taking local elections away from state governments is a key step towards fair elections and full autonomy for local councils.

“There are processes, and each step must be taken correctly. People need to understand governance and policy making,” he argued.

“It is crucial for the election process of local officials to be independent. When elections are controlled by governors, it is as if financial autonomy is granted with one hand and withdrawn with the other,” he said.

As it is, it will remain intractable if not impossible for local governments to be autonomous in the country given the nature and character of the nation’s politics. And that is why it has become difficult for good governance to take place at the local level. The money that is meant for the development of these areas is easily diverted to the pockets of politicians.