Autonomy for councils is call to service

Following the financial autonomy granted to local councils by the Supreme Court, all eyes are now on the councils to act as fulcrum of development in the country. By now, the councils ought to be deep in their plan to take back their constitutional roles and make themselves relevant in the overall scheme to improve the lives of the citizens. Local government areas are where the people reside, therefore, concerted and deliberate investment across the 774 councils will, no doubt, open up the country to accelerated prosperity. For that to happen, resources allocated to councils henceforth, need to be properly channeled, carefully supervised and collectively monitored by stakeholders.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had cause to counsel chairmen of councils not to misinterpret the autonomy ruling as license to mismanage the resources of the people. The EFCC warned that it will not tolerate any form of financial mismanagement at the grassroots.

Benue State governor, Hyancinth Alia, equally admonished council chairmen in the state against indulging in financial misappropriation, promising that the EFCC will be on the lookout for them. He also warned them not to embark on frivolous trips outside their council areas, but imbibe accountability, integrity and transparency in the discharge of their duties. The governor added that council chairmen must not mistake internally generated revenue and taxes as their personal funds but work hard to improve the welfare of their people.

The warnings by the the anti-graft agency and the Benue State governor is timely and should be taken seriously. This is the time for local councils to initiate organic and sustainable development beginning at the Ward level and all hands must now be on deck. This emerging era, when state governments will no longer decide arbitrarily the fate of people at the grassroots, a decades-long experience during which councils remained stunted and impoverished, is worthy of celebration.

For this financial autonomy to be meaningful, the focus of development should be the people and their basic needs. In those years before corruption became pervasive, local councils provided dispensaries, from where locals obtained primary healthcare without much ado and for free. Local councils ensured that communities were clean and sanitary inspectors were on hand to instill discipline. Council authorities design modalities for cutting grasses along community roads and trunk C roads. It is important for local governments to take up these responsibilities which are people-focused and constitutionally assigned to councils.

The Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) lists the responsibilities and functions of the local government to include: to consider and recommend proposals for economic planning and development of the state; they are to collect rates, radio and television licenses; establish and maintain cemeteries and homes for the destitute; license bicycles, trucks, canoes, wheelbarrows and carts; establish and maintain slaughter houses, markets, motor parks and public conveniences; construction and maintenance of roads, streets, street lightings, drains, naming of roads, streets and numbering of houses; registration of births, deaths and marriages; control and regulation of out-door advertising ops and kiosks, restaurants, bakeries; development of agriculture; provision and maintenance of primary, adult and vocational education.

Nearly all of these functions have been taken over by states as well as the taxes accruing therefrom, thus nullifying the essence and relevance of council areas in the development of the grassroots. All that must change as councils take hold of their resources and administration from overbearing state governors.

As more resources flow directly from the Federal Government to council areas, emphasis should return to agriculture. Land is located in the council. Schools should be encouraged to establish farms and grow livestock. In the past, council authorities established farms and maintained ranches. Local governments must return to the land as hunger threatens millions of citizens, who have no access to land and farm inputs. There is no better time to return to the farms.

Priority on primary and vocational education must be stressed. In time past, the major excuse given by states to justify joint account ownership with local councils is the latter’s inability to sustain payment of salaries of teachers and running seamless primary education. Councils must build capacity of their personnel and integrity of their systems to take on this responsibility without fail.

This is the time to get the people involved in the running of their affairs. Projects should be sited in communities after needs-based assessment to determine what the people want. That will enable them take ownership and responsibility in the management of projects. Town halls are essential to galvanise opinions and ideas from the people. Council administration is about the people and their opinions must count.

This is also the time for the elites to return home and be part of the rebuilding of local government administration. For that to happen, relevant adjustments must be made in the electoral system and handbooks, to free local government elections from entrenched party and hegemonic interests in states. The hegemons are not going to give up unless they are forced out. To this end, many have called for an amendment to allow independent candidates run for council elections. In some states, elected council officials are beholden to governors who nominated and ensured that they win in dubious elections carried out by equally dubious state electoral commissions. All that must change.

As the governor of Benue State, Alia feared, too much money in the hands of council managers could make them dizzy, to begin to abdicate their mandate. The responsibility is on all of us in the civil society to monitor and ensure that this new experiment does not fail.