A member of the Committee on Devolution of Power and Structure of Government at the ongoing national conference, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, in this interview with LEKE BAIYEWU, says the committee has not recommended scrapping of the local governments as reported but seeks the transfer of their control from the Federal Government to the state governments
YOUR committee has reportedly recommended the scrapping of local governments. Why?
We never said that local government s should be scrapped. All we said was that as obtained in every true federal arrangement, local government should not be on the exclusive list; it should go residual. Their management, functions and operations should be managed by the states as the federating units; not by the Federal Government. It should be deleted from the federal constitution and now be transferred to the states, where they rightly belong. It is a misconception to say that we are scrapping local governments. No, we have not said so. It is an anomaly by making them a third tier of government, which we have just removed.
State governors have often been accused of dictatorship in the affairs of local governments. Why then should governors be given more powers to run local councils?
We want to follow best practices around the world. There will be constitutional safeguards. Many of us believe states should have their constitutions to check the whims and caprices of the governors. We cannot approbate and reprobate at the same time. We cannot say we want true federalism and not say we want to make a new constitutional arrangement. Putting their constitution under the Federal Government is a unitary arrangement; it is not federalism. That is what people should understand.
The argument has always been that local government brings the government closer to the people at the grass roots. With the new arrangement, do you see this still taking place?
What gives the impression that the President in Abuja is closer to the people than the governors in the states? What gives the impression that the President in Abuja loves the people more than the governors of the states? The process is to allow governors manage their states very well. Some of the states we are talking about are bigger than some of the countries in Africa, who manage their police, army and the rest. How can we now say they (governors) cannot manage local governments? Lagos State is bigger than Ghana. Are you now saying that the Lagos State governor cannot manage the local governments (in the state)? Let us understand what we are talking about. Let anybody tell us one country in the world that is truly federal and has three tiers of government.
The Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees has alleged that members of your committee have been sponsored to work towards scrapping of local governments. Is this true?
Our committee is made up of people from every section of the country. There are northerners in the committee, there are easterners and there are the Yoruba. It is a baseless allegation by anti-federalists.
The critics are also saying because there are about four ex-governors in the committee, they might be more favourable to having local governments scrapped. Could this be true?
Are they still governors? Those arguments are fallacious. This is about federalism. Let all those who are saying that we should sustain what we have now mention one country that runs proper federal system anywhere in the world where local government is a third tier of government or listed in the federal constitution. Let them mention one.
If people are calling for decentralisation of power at the centre and to empower the states, would the governors not become too powerful, if they also have the power to run local governments?
People think this is all about governors. This is not about governors, this is about federalism. There are other things that will come up that will make it very difficult for local governments to be run the way they are running now. In fact, what is happening now is the most responsible thing. Without any law or regulation, the Federal Government just sends money (allocation); the governors and the council chairmen or caretaker committees just do what they like with it. By the time we bring the local governments back to the states, we will insist on laws in the states, not on the whims and caprices of the governors. Some of us have pushed for state constitution. They too must be ‘constitutionalised.’ We are not making the recommendation as things are; we are making a Nigeria how it should be.
Is Nigeria likely to have a confederal or regional system of government?
It is a federal system of government with two tiers of government – the central government and the states as federating units. When we call it a local government, why does it have links with Abuja? Local is the operative word. The local government should be under the federating unit.
What will then happen to the local government structures on the ground?
The governors will determine structure, constitution and form of its local governments in their states. The long years of military rule had panel beaten our memory. In the First Republic, did we have these local governments? It was in 1976 that the military unified local governments in Nigeria. Is that how it should be? There were those who believed that the traditional rulers were too powerful and there should chairmen of local governments. We started the issue of glorification and other nonsense like the association of local government chairmen, association of this and that. This became a tool for the military.
Where the governors take over the affairs of local governments, the fear is that employees of these councils may be purged. What can you say about this?
Even now, a lot of people in local governments in the North do not even see their chairmen; they live in Abuja. They only go there once in a month to share the money (allocation). What development is that bringing? The majority of allocation to local governments is money sent down the drains.
What are the benefits the country will get from having governors control local councils?
Local governments will no longer be the avenue of sharing money in Abuja. The administration of local councils will be back to the people. Each state will consider its peculiarity to design its local governments in a way that they will function and deliver more to the people. There will be more institutional safeguards that will stop the recurrent recklessness that is going on; that is making local councils at the moment nothing but to slush funds. The local governments will be encouraged to generate revenue as it was in the past. And once they begin to do this, people will be able to ask them what they are doing with the money. Unlike now that we don’t know how much is their share from Abuja. Let the critics mention any country with true federalism in the world that is practising what we have in Nigeria.
What amendments is your committee recommending for the federal level?
Part of the things we are doing is to take some powers from the Federal Government. By the time we submit our report, and the Committee on Devolution of Powers submits its report, you will see. I am aware that the current 68 items on the federal exclusive list will not survive. If we want to practise true federalism, we have recommended that there should be only one list and there should be no concurrent list. Concurrent list only means that more power is given to the centre and wherever the states compete with the Federal Government, the latter takes precedent. The whole idea is to remove and reduce the power from the centre and to bring governors back to the people. This will let the governors have control over the local governments.
Why do you think associations like NULGE and ALGON are afraid of the proposed system?
NULGE executives met with us and we asked them to give us about one country that practises what we have in Nigeria; they could not tell us. They even came under the false impression that we have scrapped local governments. We have not scrapped local governments; we have only transferred their functions from the federal to the state; from exclusive to residual. A lot of misinformation is going on that there is a vested interest. When NULGE executives came, we explained to them. ALGON is an abnormality, where you have people claiming to be in a union.
PUNCH.
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