•By Olayiwola Rasheed Jebba Hamilton
Lagos State’s Local Government Administration Law has undergone significant amendments, sparking debates across various quarters. As a federalist and a proponent of competitive federalism, I believe Nigeria’s multi-ethnic and multi-relgious nature necessitates a tailored approach to governance. So, with this article, I chose to delve into the intricacies of the amendments, the constitutional framework, and the implications for local government administration in Lagos.
From my knowledge, no federation (except perhaps some variants in Brazil) provides a uniform Local Government System in its Federal Constitution or treats Local Government as a de-facto Federation Unit. I understand that the issue of appropriate Local Government System was vigorously debated by the framers of the 1999 Constitution and a compromise was to insert Sections 7 Constitution which, among others, empowers each State through its House of Assembly to make laws which provide “for the establishment, structure, composition, finance, and functions…” of the local governments. Pioneered by Lagos State and about 2004, several states have various laws pursuant to these Constitutional powers. The composition or structure of local governments in Lagos State is certainly different from that of other States.
Also, the debate as to whether Local Governments should be part of the Federal Constitution or left to each Federation Unit (State) to determine its own appropriate Local Government System is still an unsettled matter. The APC committee on restructuring Nigeria proposed scrapping the Local Government from the Constitution of Nigeria. The position of all the Stakeholders from South-East was that Local Governments be scrapped from the Constitution and let each State/Region determine the type of Local Administration that suits it. Similar positions have been argued by Afenifere, PANDEF, Middle Belt Forum, etc. This is an issue for another day.
In the context of our evolving federalism, I see the recent Supreme Court judgment regarding the direct transfer of funds belonging to the Local Governments as an important contribution to our search for effective and transparent administration of resources at the local level. I see the judgment as an opportunity for public good. Given the Constitutional mandate for joint planning between the State and Local Government, I see the judgment as an opportunity for greater transparency and predictability regarding the sources and uses of funds, as well as greater coordination and collaboration between the State and Local Government. If there was any state where the State-Local Government Joint Accounts Committee did not manage the LG funds transparently, the Supreme court judgment is an opportunity and mandate to do it differently by further empowering the LG Administration.
But there is more work to be done. We all need to think through how the funds transferred to the LGs should be appropriated, spent, or accounted for. Monies meant for the Federal or State Governments are not spent by the President or Governors. The National Assembly and State Assemblies make appropriation laws on how and by whom the monies should be spent and provide oversight functions. What happens to the monies directly sent to the LGs? Who spends the monies? On what and how will they be accounted for?
This is where Section 7 of the Constitution comes handy, and the Lagos State House of Assembly has risen to the occasion. Happily, the Supreme Court did not nullify Section 7 of the Constitution. The new Local Government Administration Bill that will be pass into Law by Lagos House of Assembly are therefore consequential to give operational life to the Supreme Court judgment and not to undermine it. If the State House of Assembly abdicates this constitutional duty, the Local Government will then have no law on the use and management of its finance which the Constitution has given the State House of Assembly (and only the House of Assembly) the mandate to legislate on. Indeed, in many states the House of Assemblies retain the power to suspend or remove Chairpersons of Local Governments.
By the way, isn’t the legislative authority exercised by the State Assemblies under Section 7 of the Constitution similar to the powers granted by the Constitution to the National Assembly over the Federal Capital Territory and its Area Councils? I understand that the Senate President had recently at one of the Plenary Sessions rhetorically asked if it was indeed possible to grant the kind of “autonomy” some people talk about without major amendments to the Constitution. Many Nigerians ask the same question. I also understand that the Senate recently resolved to begin the process of Constitutional amendment in this regard. This is a welcome development. But until that is done, the Lagos State Laws pursuant to the Constitution and designed to give operational effect to the Supreme Court judgment remain subsisting and valid.
A critical instrument for muddling through our evolving federation and delivering higher efficiency and effectiveness in development is through structured collaboration among the tiers of government. No tier of government enjoys absolute autonomy. For example, the Federal Government of Nigeria has exclusive right over solid minerals, but the States have exclusive right over the land. Only a collaborative framework will maximize benefits from natural resources. Currently, there is a collaborative funding for the security agencies. The States and LGs contribute tens of billions monthly and deducted directly from FAAC every month towards the funding of the armed forces which are exclusively under the Federal Government of Nigeria. At the State levels, each State is spending a fortune of its own revenues on logistics and operational costs for the Federal security agencies. The Federal Government, States and LGs are jointly paying for the Federal Government initiative on metering, etc. The States understand the above “emergency measures” as part of the collaborative arrangements to make Nigeria work better. A federal agency, the Debt Management Office (DMO) must clear any State Government seeking to borrow from domestic financial system, while the National Assembly must approve States’ external borrowing. The Federal UBEC insists on counterpart funding by States before it can release Federal funds for basic education and also supervises the utilization of the contributions by States. There is a dozen or more areas of oversight of Federal agencies over State finances. The above illustrations are simply to make the point that no tier of government can function in absolute autarky without collaboration with others. Given the functions assigned to the LGs by the Constitution, it is impossible to see how they can perform them without active collaboration with State governments. Because the Constitution did not envisage “absolute autonomy” for the Local Governments, it gave the State House of Assembly powers to make laws for them and equally did not create a Local Government Judiciary distinct from the State Judiciary.
The Local Government Administration legislations that will be passed into Law by the progressive Lagos State House of Assembly seek to achieve three objectives: consistency with the Constitution and judgment of the Supreme Court; enhanced transparency and productive collaboration; and promotion of sustainable finance, democracy, and development at the local government. The Law seek to retain the 20 Local Governments recognized by the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s constitution, establish 37 Administrative Councils, with functions, which includes the duties of the LG, tasks assigned by thr Law of the House, and Executive Directives from the Governor, in order to promoting decentralized governance and community engagement, where each Administrative Council will be headed by an Administrative Secretary, appointed by the Governor, and confirmed by the Lagos State House of Assembly, ensuring accountability, oversight and fostering cooperation and coordination. The Law as well seek to codify the collaborative arrangements to promote transparency and accountability. We seek to avoid ad-hoc or arbitrary arrangements, building to last! The good news is that the eminent jurists at the Supreme Court did not outlaw collaboration and cooperation among the LGs in funding joint or common services, nor did they nullify Section 7 of the Constitution. What the new Bill that will soon be Law, simply require is that ALL the Chairmen/Administrative Secretaries of the Local Governments and Administrative Areas, under the State, decide what percentage of their revenues to contribute to a Joint Local Government Account to pay for common/pooled services such as: (a) payment of salaries, allowances, gratuities and pensions of workers and retirees under the Local Government Service Commission; (b) provision and maintenance of primary, adult and vocational education including all salaries, allowances, gratuities and pensions payable in that regard; (c) provision and maintenance of primary health services including all salaries, allowances, gratuities and pensions payable in that regard; (d) payment of allowances to traditional rulers and Presidents-General of the communities; (e) Subventions to the Local Government Service Commission; and even for community security.
What many people do not know is that the Constitution puts primary education and primary health care under the local governments. Many also do not know that primary school teachers are pooled under the UBEC—Universal Basic Education Commission. Workers in all the LGs are also pooled staff under the Local government service commission. Ditto for primary health workers. Absolute autonomy would mean that each Local Government and Administrative Area, would have its own primary education policy, employ its own teachers, and pay them whatever it can afford and whenever it can do so, etc. Since Lagos State has free education for primary and secondary education in all public schools, some LGs may decide that they cannot afford it. It might even get to a point where some LGs might ask “non-indigenes” who are workers in the LGs or teachers in primary schools to “go home” to their LGs of origin due to budgetary or other constraints.
Indeed, absolute autonomy of LGs would mean that institutions that pool resources and workers would be scrapped including the Local Government Service Commission, Local Government Pension Board, the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB), the Primary Health Care Agency, etc. Does it mean that the federal UBEC or Federal Ministry of Health would have to deal with each of the 774 LGs in respect of primary education or primary health care instead of coordinated through the State UBEC or State primary health care agency? This would be a recipe for humongous chaos, not only for the administration of Local Government and pensions, but more so in the primary education and primary health sectors. Some administrations inherited number of years arrears of gratuity which they clears systematically. How do you share the outstanding balance among the LGs or pay pensions to over 15,000 LG retirees who served the LGs as a pool without pooling of funds? Some years ago, in some States, some LGs rejected teachers posted to their LGs because it would jack up their wage bill.
Yes, our nascent federation is evolving but some of us as practitioners are determined to make it work for the people while we have the opportunity. Our elected leaders at the State, most especially the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon (Dr) Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa and his colleagues in House, believe in building enduring institutions, especially ones founded upon due process, transparency, and rule of Law. I am one of the people that do remind him (Obasa) that many of the institutional reforms he established as the Speaker of the House in his first term still endure. Since assumption into office as the Speaker of the House for the third term, last year, he and his colleagues in the House, have devoted a lot of efforts in reforming and strengthening institutions, including the Local Government Administration. Today, Lagos State House of Assembly under his watch is ranked number 1 among the 36 States House of Assemblies on fiscal transparency by BudgIT, and the top among five States on financial sustainability.
So, the Local Government Administration Bill, is designed to protect our gains so far and strengthen the system for the future consistent with the Constitution and Laws. I always remind the Speaker, Rt. Hon (Dr) Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, that he is a bird of passage, and eventually, he will leave office. But he must build to last, for the next generations. More specifically, the new and amended Laws, that are designed to protect our workers at the Local level and protect our primary education and primary health care from chaos and collapse.
No Law protects the workers against nonpayment of salaries or pensions by governments. In Lagos, the State Government really want to ensure that we do not wake up and hear that some LGs paid salaries of primary school teachers and others did not or that some pensioners are paid and others not, or that some contribute towards UBEC counterpart-funding while others do not. The Bill when pass into Law seek to create a framework to ensure that the basic functions mandated by the Constitution for the Local Governments are discharged as a matter of first-line charge or the irreducible minimum. With this Bill into Law, workers, and retirees from the local government system in Lagos (primary school teachers, primary health workers, workers in the local government system under the Local Government Service Commission) can sleep with their two eyes closed. The LGs and State government will also collaborate in the security of the communities, just as the States and Federal Government collaborate in funding even the federal security agencies.
It is equally important to understand that the Constitution mandated this collaboration between the States and Local Governments when in its section 7 (3), it provides that “it shall be duty of a Local Government Council within the State to participate in economic planning and development of the area referred to in sub section 2, of this section and to this end, an economic planning board shall be established by a Law enacted by the House of Assembly of the State”. This provision give rise to the Lagos State House of Assembly to establish Economic Planning Board in which all the Local Government Chairmen/Chairpersons will be members and who, among other things, will decide on the percentage to be contributed to the Local Government Joint Account. It is important to appreciate that this money is not handed over to the State but remains with the Local Governments under a joint pool for the discharge of certain services by the Local Governments which services are uniform/common among the Local Governments as stated earlier.
Summarily, the Bill when pass into Law will ensure that the State can function in a cohesively planned, transparent and sustainable manner to maximize the security and welfare of the citizens, which constitute a very smart solution to a possible systemic threat.
Recall that Governors and States House of Assemblies are often accused of seeking to “control” LG funds with insinuations that LG funds are mismanaged. Of course, in a society where public office is seen as “dinning table” and public trust is low, people judge others by their own standards: by what they would do if they were in the position. I often ask: control for what? While I cannot hold brief for every governor, I know that most States are struggling to ensure a solvent Local Government System. I wish the State actors can be spared the headache, if not for the predictable collateral damage to the system if we abdicate from structured oversight and collective accountability. The challenge ahead can be daunting given the quantum rise in wage bills because of the new minimum wage, as well as consequential rise in future pension/gratuity payments. Without active collaboration and coordination between State and Local Governments, many LGs will end up in a huge financial mess, requiring bailouts by State Governments or will Federal Government of Nigeria directly intervene in every case of insolvency among the 774 LGs?
Conclusively, the progressive legislation by the Lagos State House of Assembly is designed to unleash the creative powers of the LGs, encourage peer learning, optimal development outcomes in planning and execution among the LGs, as well as novel accountability and transparency. The Bill when pass into Law is ingenious by creating multiple layers of collaborative oversight whereby the LGs agree on monies to set aside and managed collectively by them for common services or first-line charges, while the rest is appropriated by the Congress of Councillors in each LG. In an innovative sense, the legislative powers – including powers of appropriation and oversight now largely reside with the local government legislature – Congress of Councillors, which is empowered to make bye-laws, which are in the nature of regulations, for the Local Governments (as it is the House of Assembly that is empowered by the Constitution to enact Laws to guide the Local Governments).
Since neither the Constitution nor the Supreme Court judgment prescribes the manner of appropriation, expenditure, and audit/accountability for Local Government funds, the House of Assembly and Congress of Councillors fill in the blanks under the new Bill that will turn into Law, pursuant to Section 7 of the Constitution. The evolution of our federalism is a work-in-progress, and the new Lagos State Bill which turns into Law, in days to come, constitute creative and progressive additions to institution-building.
•Olayiwola Rasheed Jebba Hamilton is a Social Commentator, Political and Public Analyst. He is the Special Adviser on Environment, Information and Civic Engagement to the Executive Chairman, Agege Local Government Area.
