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By Madu Obi
Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo has said that absolute autonomy for local government areas in Nigeria as an impossibility, insisting that it will be a recipe for chaos.
Speaking after signing into law the recently passed Local Government Administration Law in Awka, Soludo argued that challenges before the local government autonomy were such that would certainly deepen the fate of the system and spell doom for the expected beneficiaries of the process.
Many stakeholders in the state, particularly those in the opposition, have argued that the new law passed by the state assembly was an attempt by Governor Soludo to control the finances of the 21 local government areas of the state despite the autonomy granted them by the Supreme Court.
According to the governor, Section 7 of the constitution comes handy for the enacting of the enabling laws for the administration of the respective local government areas across the country.
He said: "The Anambra State House of Assembly has risen to the occasion. Happily, the Supreme Court did not nullify Section 7 of the Constitution.
The new laws by Anambra 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 finances which the Constitution has given the state 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?
Governors 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 I can be spared the headache, if not for the predictable collateral damage to the system if we abdicate from structured oversight and collective accountability.
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 FGN directly intervene in every case of insolvency among the 774 LGs?
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."
The governor highlighted some of his achievements in the local government sector since he became governor of Anambra State.
"We inherited a local government system with four-year arrears (2018-2022) of gratuity to retired primary school teachers and other staff of local government.
We have restructured their finances back to sustainability. Everyone who retired from the local government and State civil service since my tenure is paid gratuity/pension, and we are on course to clear the outstanding arrears soon"
Three years’ arrears on counterpart funding for Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has been cleared, resulting in billions of Naira recently invested in our primary schools.
Some 326 primary health centres are being constructed or modernized in all the 326 wards in the state as well as employing hundreds of medical personnel to man the primary health centres.
Most of the local government secretariats have been remodelled and equipped, and the LG system is once again alive. This is not to mention that 3,615 out of the 8,115 new teachers recruited under my administration are for primary schools and they are being paid. We do not want to go back!"
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