One subject-matter that has elicited much debate in the polity is the continued relevance or not of our local councils. No doubt, the local government, as the third-tier of government by virtue of Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic on Nigeria (as amended) and the closest to the people at the grassroots, has been adjudged to have performed abysmally low in Nigeria. It is on this premise that critics have argued that the nation can do pretty well without the local councils.  

The just-concluded First International Conference on Politics, Security and Development, at the Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State themed, “40 Years of Local Government Reforms and Democratic Development in Nigeria: Critical Perspectives,” offered more insight on the importance of local councils in rendering impactful service in the nation’s bureaucracy. The maiden edition of the conference drew participants from the academia, local government areas, public service and the civil society while the keynote address was given by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president of Nigeria; and special message delivered by the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, represented by Secretary to the Ogun State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa. 

The Chief Host and President/Vice-Chancellor of the Babcock University, Prof. Ademola Tayo; Host and Dean, Veronica Adeleke, School of Social Sciences, Prof. Femi Ajayi; and Convener/Head, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Prof. Michael Oni had highlighted the imperative of organising the conference at a critical point in the life of the nation, where the citizenry continue to yearn for the good governance at the grassroots level and without getting results.   

The chairman of the occasion, Alhaji Jani Ibrahim, a former managing director of the Nigeria Airways, outlined the major challenges facing local councils and posed a number of issues that required thorough analysis such as: how can local councils be reformed? What should be the best mode of appointing local government leadership? How do we make our councils accountable? How do we promote grassroots development? How does the nation come out of its current economic recession? The immediate past HoD, Political Science and Public Administration, Dr. Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, who had x-rayed the role played by the Obasanjo in Nigeria’s development, provided the starting point for the keynote address in which the former president traced the evolution of local government administration in the country. Obasanjo, however, blamed the poor performance of local councils largely on the state governors, saying they remained the “greatest obstacles” to having virile and functional local governments in the country.

According to him, as soon as council allocations were released from the federation account, the state governments would simply deduct from source, whatever amount they claimed were spent on behalf of the local governments. The former President disclosed that he initiated the local government reforms in1976 to make them autonomous, functional and developmental but lamented that this was not achieved because once such money was illegally deducted at source by the governors; no local council chairman dared questioned or challenged such an illegality without getting punished.
 
The former Nigerian leader said good leadership at the state and the local government levels with integrity, dedication and lack of corruption was urgently required to make local governments functional, saying “an effective, efficient and performing local government systems and operations will enhance the delivery of dividends of democracy and governance in Nigeria. Not allowing local governments to work and stealing their funds from source by states is one of the greatest disservices of all political parties in the present dispensation of our democratic experiment.”

The keynote speaker stated further that experiences in many states of the federation had shown that local councils had become the most constitutionally-abused structure in the country since the 1999 Constitution became operational and that only a handful of states had held local governments’ election as at when due.   “Most state governors floated the idea of appointing transition committees comprising of their surrogates to oversee the affairs of the councils.

The trend, sadly, has been maintained in some state still now. In others, where the polls had been conducted, the governors, in connivance with corrupt electoral officials subservient to the governors and the ruling party committed malpractices which make a mockery of the process,” he added. On the way forward, Obasanjo called for true local government autonomy, entrenchment of accountability as well as attitudinal change by the citizens by having patriotic belief in the corporate existence of Nigeria.  

However, the Ogun State Governor gave a different perspective, saying his administration recognised the constitutional provision for local governments, which informed why it had conducted council elections twice in the state in 2012 and2016, adding that contrary to the allegations that state governors in country routinely divert councils’ funds, he insisted that his administration had never dipped its hand into the local governments’ purses but that to the contrary, the state government had always come to their aid by augmenting their funds, to meet their financial obligations.

Further illumination was provided during the lead paper presentations that had four eminent scholars: Prof. Alex Gboyega, whose paper was titled, “Nigerian Local Government in the Doldrums: Back to Drawing Board;” Prof. Iyabo Olojede, represented by Dr. Femi Fatile, with paper titled, “Women and Democratic Leadership in Local Government System in Nigeria;” Dr. Bola Dauda, represented by Dr. Olubukola, Olugasa, who reviewed the presentation titled, “Democracy, Development and the Unfinished Decolonisation of the Nigerian Local Governments;” and Prof. Kunle Awotokun, whose presentation was titled, “The Challenges of Nigerian Local Governments in the 21st Century.”

Major recommendations after the lead presentations include the need for local councils to be localised; need for active participation of women in politics; the imperative of having legislation that would make local government leadership aspirants to live in their domains for at least, one to two years before being elected into offices so as to make them familiar with their localities and people; need to cut the high cost of governance; abolition of the federal character principle that does not promote meritocracy; and reorientation of the people towards patriotism.

The thought-provoking conference, which had Dr. Ngozi Nwogwugwu, as the chairman, Local Organising Committee, exhaustively discussed local government administration under various sub-headings at its plenary sessions on topics like “Conflict Management and Resolution at Local Level,” “Cooperative and Fiscal Federalism,” “Theoretical and Methodological Issues and Democratic Consolidation,” “Security and Community Policing”; and “Accountability and Anti-corruption Measures.”

The diverse and rich presentations at the end of the two-day conference were harmonised into a communiqué, that touched on all aspects of reengineering our local councils, which was read out by Prof. Jones Aluko of the hosting department, while the institution’s Senior
Vice-President/Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), Prof. Iheanyichukwu Okoro, represented by Prof. Yacob Haliso, Provost, College of Postgraduate School, reiterated that the gathering was very timely, hoping that policy makers would adopt the outcome of the conference in turning around our local councils to be ever relevant. For many, this should really be the next line of action for the consolidation of the robust discourse at the conference.  
Kupoluyi wrote from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.
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