Restore local government democracy now!

The debate over the configuration of the Nigerian federation and in particular, the level of autonomy  local governments should enjoy remains as lively as ever. Lawyers and politicians would in the foreseeable future continue to ponder the question on whether Nigeria is a two-tier or three-tier federation and the mode of relationship between the states and local governments.

While that debate rages, the supremacy of democracy at the local government level as defined by Section 7 of the Constitution remains unwavering.

It reads:  The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the Government of every State shall, subject to section 8 of this Constitution, ensure their existence under a Law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.

The fact of democracy being the norm at the local government level was upheld by the Supreme Court on December 9, 2016 when it sustained the argument of the former local government chairmen in Ekiti State who were dismissed from office by a former governor of the state, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, on October 10, 2010, two years into their tenure.

The truncation of the tenure of local government councils has, of course, not been limited to Ekiti State. It is a nationwide malpractice that all political parties which have won elections at state levels have committed. Self-serving governors finding one issue or the other have often in cahoots with their rubber stamp state legislative houses held the local governments to ransom by uprooting democratically elected officials and planting pliable caretaker committees.

Such irresponsible actions have done irreparable harm to the nation’s democracy. In the first place, it spreads the bad message that local offices which ordinarily should be occupied by officials elected by the majority of the people can be held through imposition.

Secondly, the appointment of caretaker committees by governors grooms a culture where the appointed administrators are only beholden to the governors and not to the people.

The erosion of democracy at the local government level was recently brought to the fore by the National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, through a series of nationwide rallies that ended last month. As the people who feel it most, the local government workers attested to the damages wrought by the absence of democracy at that level of governance. Development is stunted while even the payment of salaries is difficult.

We join the NULGE and all other well-meaning Nigerians to demand the restoration of functional democracy at the local governments. The appointment of caretaker committees for the local governments is an aberration that was never envisaged by the constitution.

It should be stopped now!

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