Despite Supreme Court verdict, governors tighten hold on local govts through “phoney” elections

Since the landmark Supreme Court ruling on local government administration, many states have conducted elections for their local councils.

The Supreme Court said “only democratically elected local government councils” are to be funded from the federation’s purse. In the judgement, the justices used a “progressive interpretation of the law” to strike out Section 162(6) of the 1999 Constitution.

“It is the position of this court that the federation can pay local governments’ allocations directly to the local governments or through the states. In this case, since paying them through the states has not worked, justice demands that local governments’ allocations from the Federation Account should henceforth be paid directly to the local governments,” Emmanuel Agim, a justice of the court, declared.

For many affronted by unelected officials running local councils, the verdict was necessary to end the governors’ hijack of the local government system. State governments were accused of using Sections 162(5), (6), and (8) of the Constitution to fraudulently take over local government funds. This illegality thrived through appointing caretaker committees for the councils or dubious elections.

At the time of the Supreme Court ruling on 11 July, 21 states had transition or caretaker committees running their local governments. Since then, 18 states have held local government elections, while nine others have scheduled dates, with only Zamfara and Nasarawa yet to do either.

However, the recent elections have left advocates of local government autonomy scratching their heads. Most commentaries on the elections have been negative.

The headlines after each exercise often read, “Ruling party in X state sweeps council polls, wins election in all local governments.”

All the elections conducted by the various State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) were rejected as fraudulent by opposition parties and major civil society organisations.

Take Sokoto State, where the ruling APC won all 23 chairmanships and 244 councillorship seats. The party narrowly won last year’s governorship election, with Ahmed Aliyu polling 453,661 votes to defeat Saidu Umar, the closest rival and candidate of the then-ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled 404,632.

In all the states, the only pattern is of ruling parties “sweeping the polls,” even in states that flipped only last year.

An analysis of the 18 elections conducted since the Supreme Court ruling shows that ruling parties won all the chairmanship seats, with two exceptions being in Akwa Ibom and Rivers states.

In the case of Akwa Ibom, the ruling PDP won 31 and dropped only one — Essien Udim, the local government of Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

Some APC supporters saw the strange outcome as a polite gesture by Governor Umo Eno not to embarrass the senate president.

Mr Akpabio acknowledged this.

“But let me point out that in a quiet moment, the elections were not perfect. The local government elections could have been better.

“My colleagues are even appreciating the state government for remaining steadfast, realising that it would be impossible for the senate president to lose votes even in his own local government.

“And that for him, some governments would have gone ahead to even announce what they like, saying that he belongs to the federal government and does what he wants there.

“But that he announced, the APC chairman of my local government only won the elections. That is where the commendation comes from,” Mr Akpabio said during plenary recently.

For its part, Rivers State has an ongoing crisis within the state chapter of the ruling PDP.

Governor Siminalayi Fubara does not control the party’s structure in the state and is believed to have sent his supporters to obtain the relatively unknown Action Peoples Party (APP) tickets a few weeks before the polls. Regardless of the time constraints, the APP went on to win 22 out of the 23 local council seats.

Once upon a time in Kaduna

In 2018, under Governor Nasir el-Rufai, Kaduna State made odd progress in local government elections with electronic voting, which produced some opposition victories.

During the 2018 local government elections, the main opposition party, the PDP, won four local governments: Zangon Kataf, Kauru, Kachia and Sanga.

The 2021 council elections in the state were equally competitive, with opposition parties picking up some seats. However, the last local government election held in Kaduna on Saturday produced total victory for the ruling APC. The party took all 23 local government chairmanships and 255 councillorship seats in the state.

This outcome is also a departure from the last governorship election, which Governor Uba Sani won with less than 11,000 votes. Mr Sani polled 730,002 votes to defeat his closest rival, Isa Ashiru of the PDP, who polled 719,196 votes.

Debates over the conduct of LG elections

YIAGA Africa, in its interim report on some of the recent council polls, described the elections as a “travesty”, adding that they all failed the integrity test. Yet, state governments seem unperturbed by these commentaries. Many expect elections in the remaining states to follow the same path, rendering the Supreme Court’s intervention futile.

While the Supreme Court has made it illegal for unelected persons to run local governments, making council elections credible remains a puzzle.

Ali Ahmad, a former member of the House of Representatives, argued that the Supreme Court ruling has only pushed governors to legitimise the appointment of local government officials through sham elections.

“What governors were doing illegally before, with transition committees, they are now permitted to do legally,” Mr Ahmad said in a phone interview.

Mr Ahmad

The inability of SIECs to deliver credible elections has been a significant factor driving calls for transferring their responsibilities to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Some have also advocated the creation of a federal body to conduct local government elections.

Along that line, a bill in the Senate seeks to establish a National Independent Local Government Electoral Commission (NILGEC). However, to many proponents of federalism, this will only transfer more power to the federal level.

Debates over transferring Local Government Elections to INEC

Local government election rush

The debate over the administration of local governments intersects with another prevalent issue: federalism. While there seems to be a consensus on the poor state of local government administration – particularly the lack of credible elections and the overbearing influence of governors—opinions are divided on how to address the problem, particularly concerning the devolution of power.

Many discussions about local government reform focus on transferring the elections to INEC or a new federal body, making local elections the exclusive responsibility of the federal government.

Under the 1999 Constitution, SIECs are mandated to conduct elections in Nigeria’s 768 local governments across 36 states. INEC is responsible for all other elections, including those of the six area councils of Abuja.

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, raised the possibility of transferring local government elections to INEC during a retreat on constitutional amendment.

“Many experts have proposed scrapping the state independent electoral commissions and transferring their functions to INEC because the SIECs remain appendages of incumbent governors. This is perceived as the root cause of local government administration issues in Nigeria,” he said, without indicating the government’s position.

These recent elections have intensified the debate. Mr Ahmad argued that President Tinubu should have pushed for a constitutional amendment to remove SIECs and empower INEC to conduct local government elections.

“We told President Tinubu that this Supreme Court ruling is like cutting off a snake’s tail but leaving its head. He needed two actions: The Supreme Court ruling and an emergency constitutional amendment empowering INEC to conduct local government elections,” Mr Ahmad said.

However, Jide Ojo, an election expert, does not support transferring local government elections to INEC, citing federalism principles and INEC’s lack of capacity to run elections in 768 local governments and six area councils.

“If you transfer local government elections to INEC, you are centralising more power at the federal level, which contradicts the principles of federalism,” Mr Ojo said.

Mr Ojo stressed that state legislatures should amend laws to grant SIECs financial and administrative autonomy, much like INEC was granted in 2010. He argued that autonomy could improve SIECs over time.

“The solution to subpar elections is to address how SIECs are treated by governors. Most are routinely dissolved,” Mr Ojo added.

However, Mr Ahmad dismissed the federalism argument, stressing that saving the local government system is more critical.

While INEC has been criticised for conducting recent elections, data suggests that its elections to Abuja’s area councils are more competitive and less predictable than those conducted by SIECs.

Regardless of the merits of scrapping SIECs, they are constitutional creations. Their removal would require a constitutional amendment, which needs the support of two-thirds of state houses of assembly, as stipulated by Section 9(2) of the Constitution.

Governors have often used state assemblies to protect their hold on local governments, with local government autonomy bills frequently rejected by state parliaments. Any bill to scrap SIECs will likely face stiff opposition at the governors’ behest.

The question remains whether the Supreme Court has another “magic wand” to create credible local government elections.