Local govts need half of Nigeria’s revenue to develop rural areas – Ex-ALGON secretary

A former Secretary General of the Association of Local Government Council of Nigeria (ALGON), Chikwe Udensi, says local governments in Nigeria require at least half of the country’s revenue to develop the rural areas.

“The minimum that is required for the development of the local governments and rural areas is at least half of the revenue of this country,” Mr Udensi stated on Friday as a guest on Focus Nigeria aired on AIT.

Mr Udensi, a systems consultant to the INTERPOL, was the secretary general of ALGON between 2008 and 2014.

Under the current revenue-sharing formula in Nigeria, the federal government takes 52.68 per cent, the 36 states and the FCT get 26.72 per cent, while the 774 local government areas in the country get 20.60 per cent.

Mr Udensi, who advocates increased revenue allocation to the local governments, said over 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population lives in the rural areas where local governments operate.

He said state governors meddled in the affairs of local governments when he was ALGON secretary.

Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy

On Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal and unconstitutional for governors to receive and withhold funds allocated to the local government areas in their states.

“The amount standing to the credit of local government councils must be paid by the federation to the local government councils and not by any other person or body.

“An order of injunction is hereby granted restraining the defendants from collecting funds belonging to the local government councils when no democratically elected local government councils are in place,” the court held and ordered that henceforth, no state government should be paid monies standing in credit of the local government councils.

The Supreme Court judgment empowers the Accountant-General of the Federation to bypass state government and disburse monthly federal allocations to the local government areas.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, instituted the case in May on behalf of the federal government.

Speaking on the judgment, Mr Udensi commended the attorney general of the federation but said it was not the first time the court had ruled on the matter.

“This is not the first time we have had this kind of judgment. When I was the secretary general of ALGON, I had three judgments. The Supreme Court had also said that you (governors) cannot dissolve a democratically elected government and that you do not have to misuse the monies meant for local government, the Supreme Court had said so, but they were not implemented.

“What we are asking for now is that if the leadership at the local government level are not democratically elected the federal government should not allocate funds to them.

“The previous ones were from ALGON and other individuals. And since this is from the attorney general, I have seen the boldness at the rate he wants to get things working, not just him but this government,” he said.

Mr Udensi said over 20 states operate caretaker committees at the local government level. He described local government leaders as “cronies of governors and party men”.

According to him, the governors only considered party loyalty as the basis for appointing leaders at the local government level as against competency and experience.

He said he would prefer INEC to take over the conduct of local elections in Nigeria to enable the emergence of credible leaders at the grassroots.

“Let me tell you what happened in the past in local government elections. We went to monitor (local government elections) to ensure that at least there was some semblance of democracy. The ballot papers arrived at the polling units late, around 1 p.m. While we wanted to welcome the officials that brought the materials to the polling units, we were hearing the announcement of the election results,” he said but declined to mention the state where the incident occurred.

“This is what we have in the states. I am not saying that the national level is perfect. It is peculiar in the states, where governors have an overbearing influence.”

In his contributions, a human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, said there is a strong opinion in the country that the local government system only exists as an appendage of state governments.

He said “sham elections” are held in some states, where the governor sits at the government house and writes the names of loyalists for an announcement.

“When they (governors) pretend to be conducting election at that level, you would see that in the PDP-controlled states, those who are returned as councillors and chairmen, in most cases, are 100 per cent members of the party in power. And same with states that the APC controls.”

Nigeria is at a crossroads, Mr Effiong said. He said that INEC should conduct local elections in Nigeria.

“Nigerian is currently under the entrapment of constitutional vandals. Individuals who allocated to themselves the power of despots and kings who cannot be questioned.

“The solution lies with the Nigerian people, not the court. I am one of those who believe that in electoral matters, the judiciary may not be able to guarantee credible elections because politicians would do what they want to do and believe that nothing would happen,” he said.