FG must give something to states in return for LG autonomy —Lawmaker

The chairman of the Senate Committee on state and local governments, Senator Abdullahi Abubakar, speaks with journalists on local government administration in the country and the steps necessary to ensure they perform optimally in a democratic setting. ADAMU AMADU brings excerpts:

 

THE issue of local government autonomy has been on the front burner for some time, with those in support of and those against the idea always being at each other’s neck. Is the Senate taking any step on this matter?

The cry of the nation on local government administration is not only from the masses but also from the government of the country. President Muhammadu Buhari, in his inaugural address, stated this clearly that the Federal Government would not fold its arm and look at what is happening at state as far as local government administration is concerned. What we have seen in the country, I toured the country and I aggregated the views of some Nigerians, shows that a lot of things are going wrong in the states. I confronted the leadership of the Senate and I moved a motion in which I got the backing of the Senate to conduct a public hearing so that all stakeholders of local government administration would come forward with their suggestions on the clamour for constitutional amendment. Then, we’ll go for constitutional amendment.

The Senate gave me that mandate through the motion that I sponsored, which enabled me to see the president one-on-one and I drew his attention that under his watch, the local government administration is being killed by states governors. I told him that as we talked, only 10 states out of 36 had conducted local government elections. I told him there that his state and my state, Katsina and Jigawa states, are not among the 10 states that have conducted local government elections, which means that 75 per cent of the local governments leadership is unconstitutional and unelected. I gave him a copy of the motion I sponsored; that even within the confines of the extant laws, they are adequate enough without going through the rigour of conducting a constitutional amendment. We can, with the leadership in the states, dialogue on how local governments can be allowed to operate independently.

 

How soon will the public hearing take place?

We have met with the leadership of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON); we talked to them and they gave us their views. We are to meet with the governors’ forum, because I don’t want a situation whereby we are going to do it by force or the president would just wake up and make a pronouncement. We want it to happen through dialogue. If you are taking away the control of the local governments from the states, then you will have to give them something in return. This is the more reason why I told the president that the Federal Government has to decentralise some of its responsibilities in education, health and agriculture to the states and local governments, because if you win some you have to lose some. This is how we want the approach to be and not by bullying anybody. But, for instance, the Federal Government’s role on education can be to take the tertiary and allow the primary and secondary education to be run by the states and local governments. The Federal Government has no business in running secondary education anyway, so these unity schools should go back to the states. The states would have a little stake in the tertiary institutions, which are crying for funding because the funds and responsibilities are so huge. Likewise in the healthcare sector, the Federal Government should decentralise the responsibilities of the primary and secondary healthcare to states and local governments and take the teaching hospitals and fund and equip them well so that this health tourism can stop. By so doing, we can conserve our foreign exchange. We have the best brains in the healthcare sector; if you go to the United States, most of the consultants there are all Nigerians. Yet, we are rushing to India, Egypt for cure to ailments that can easily be taken care of within our country.

In agriculture, we have professors in research institutions that would conduct research on seedlings, soil tests and fertilisers but there is no funding. If the Federal Government can fund them properly and allow the extension works in agriculture to be at the level of states and local governments, we would have excellence in these areas. So if the states are busy and allow the local governments to stay on their feet, they would have no objection to granting them autonomy. Even the responsibilities of these constituency projects can be assigned by the Federal Government to the local governments since all National Assembly members’ constituencies are domiciled in their local governments. For instance, the policy thrust of the Federal Government in a particular year, for example next year’s budget, can be in agriculture or in health or education, so that the majority of the zonal intervention or rather constituency projects can be tailored towards those goals that the Federal Government wanted to achieve that year. If we can achieve this, we will create activities for the local governments. But as it is now, the local governments are empty; the chairman cannot go and stay in the local government, even the district head stays in the cities and comes only on the weekends.

I happen to be a member of the constitutional amendment committee and at our retreat in Lagos; we have resolved to abolish the state/local government’s joint account. The retreat was held in conjunction with speakers of states House of Assemblies and members of the House of Representatives. If all these institutions are working, Nigerians would be better for it. Even in the electoral law that is going through amendments in the Senate and items to be transferred to the constitution; we want to abolish the state electoral commission so that all elections should be conducted by INEC. This way, any party can vie for any position and have an equal chance of winning. We have made far-reaching changes in the spirit of the change mantra that was brought by our president, who has the political will to tackle any problem. He is ready to confront any untouchable problem that Nigerians once saw as a no-go area.

 

In this effort for ensure local government autonomy, is there any guiding principle to prevent the local councils abusing and misusing the power?

The guiding principle is the state House of Assemblies; they are there to make laws to checkmate any council that deviates from the rules. The constitution is very clear and adequate, where we have challenges, we will amend the constitution and the constitution is dynamic.

 

Many Nigerians have described the recent action of the Senate on the Code of Conduct Tribunal as an attempt to take over its powers because of the trial of the Senate President. How do you view this position?

On this matter, I have my personal opinion. What I am going to say is not the opinion of the Senate, so I have a different view from that of my colleagues in the Senate. Laws are meant to outlive individuals, they are not meant for individuals, so I think the decision is self-serving. This is my personal view.