Senate asks Tinubu to lead forces to resuscitate local government

The Senate at its plenary on Wednesday has called on President Bola Tinubu to lead progressive forces to resuscitate local government

By Haruna Salami

The Senate at its plenary on Wednesday called on President Bola Tinubu to lead progressive forces to resuscitate local government system in Nigeria as a solution to insecurity and other vices bedeviling the country.

The Senate position was sequel to a motion titled “Call on the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to Resustate Local Government System in Nigeria” sponsored by Senator Kawu, Suleiman Abdulrahman (Kano South).

The Senate noted that in the tapestry of Nigeria’s governance system, local governments are meant to be threads weaving development close to the ground”, adding, “envisioned as the closest tier of administration to the people, they hold the potential to address local needs directly and shape communities from the inside out.

However, upper chamber said the story of Nigeria’s local government system is one of promise and paradox, woven with threads of hope and frustration;

The Senate also noted that the journey began in 1976 with a local government reform, aiming to decentralize power and empower communities. Envisioned as self-governing entities with elected officials, local governments handled critical aspects of community life-primary education, healthcare, sanitation, local infrastructure and community security. It was a dream of grassroots democracy, where decisions were made closer to the people they impacted;

It recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, when he served as governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, demonstrated sincere passion for the autonomy of the local governments in Lagos State. This can be grasped when he purportedly established 37 LCDAs within LGAs in Lagos State and introduced reforms to strengthen them;

The same with the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, when served as the Governor of Akwa-Ibom Stated from 2007 to 2015 implemented various initiatives to improve service delivery at the local level, such as rehabilitating infrastructure, investing in healthcare and education, and launching poverty alleviation programmes, as well as deducting 10% of the IGR to LGAs which informed ground breaking achievements by LGA in Akwa-Ibom State Local Government Administration;

However, the Senate was worried that, the dream of achieving the objectives of the local government system encountered harsh realities as successive governments often eroded local autonomy, limiting their financial resources and control over decision-making. Corruption scandals and mismanagement tarnished the image of some local governments, fueling public cynicism.

Therefore, the Senate resolved to urge President Tinubu to: “Champion the cause of full autonomy for local governments in our nation. The challenges we face – persistent security threats, Rural Urban Migration, decaying infrastructure, and widespread unemployment – demand bold action, and we believe that empowering local governments holds the key to unlocking a brighter future for all Nigerians.

“Convene a national dialogue involving governors, state legislators, local government officials, civil society organizations, and community leaders to discuss the roadmap towards achieving full local government autonomy.

“Use his leadership and influence to persuade the federating units and all critical stakeholders in the constitutional alteration processes and administrative bottlenecks to embrace the vision of full local government autonomy.

“Also champion changes to the Constitution that enshrine and guarantee genuine independence for local governments, granting them control over their resources, decision- making authority, and the power to chart their development paths.

“Urge Federal agencies to fully comply with existing legal provisions that empower local governments, ensuring timely release of allocated funds directly to their bank accounts and streamlining administrative processes.

“Unified electoral system and tenure of office of the chairmen and councilors of the local governments in Nigeria.

“Stop further with the allocation of fund to Caretaker Committee-led Local Government Area and “Carryout any other assignment which in the opinion of the Senate can assist in achieving the objectives of the motion”.

Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, who presided over the plenary said “during the military and early part of the early part of the 4th Republic, the local government areas were having their autonomy and there was full sense of security prevailing there. The economies of all these local governments was booming. Rural urban migration was very small. Even councilors were awarding contracts; the money was there and they were doing very well. Even some local governments were doing very because the have their internally generated revenue.

He wondered why that happened, adding that people have forgotten who conducted that local government election that brought those people to power. “It was Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). It was not State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECOM). People went on their own, contested elections, they weren’t errand boy of anybody. They won their elections. These are people with credibility who knew what they were doing. That is why you have that scenario the way it was.

“Later the elections were conducted by SIECOM; even now there were no elections; they were just called elections. Some were even sworn in in shrines, Churches and Mosques saying if you put my name, I will ever be loyal to you. So, what do you expect from those people? After the grant has been given to local governments, they will give them blank cheques to sign and that money will be removed in line with the whelms and caprices of the state governors. We know this. You will see paper works, everything being done properly, but that is what you could see on a mere paper, but the real thing is done according to the whelms and caprices of the state governors.

“As it is being said, the president is a true, progressive democrat. He believes in the autonomy of the local government. But in this process, he will only lead, then we in the National Assembly will follow and then he will convince the governors.

“We are operating in a democracy, the governors control the state assemblies. I’m sorry to say this but it is a fact. Let them understand, so that we will have it just like before, have normalcy in our local governments.

“Now, all these billions of federal government funds to provide bore holes, build health centers in all our local governments, after you have done that, those projects remain unattended to, nobody maintains them. They rot away because the local governments that supposed to maintain them, just because of N5,000 to buy small hole or nut to fix a bore hole, the bore hole will remain like that because the councillor or chairman who should provide the money doesn’t have the funds”.