Good morning, Mr President. I bring to your table this morning the frivolities of the subnational actors in Nigeria, especially the recent incident of the wives of local government chairmen in Adamawa who went dancing Kokoma in Turkiye. Before you say: What is my business with them? Let me explain the Kokoma dance.

In Midwestern Nigeria, where I grew up, today’s Edo Central and North senatorial districts were dominated by a genre of highlife music generally called Kokoma dance. The highlife music was performed by a simple ensemble comprising instruments such as drums (congas), metal gong (agogo), loudspeaker, shekere, etc., and the vocalists. It was popularised by Afenmai musicians largely in the northern part of the state.

For the predominantly farming communities, the music cum dance, known as Kokoma, was meant for relaxation. Also, an avenue to search for those you are having a crush on in the moonlit environs. It was a rowdy business of backward and forward motion—wonky, wonky. You smoke and drink Apetashi.

If you were lucky, you end up in the other room with the one you have been searching for, or you go home with only a chuckle. If care is not taken, married women could stray into the forbidden zone of adultery. That is Kokoma, a time to unwind from the drudgeries of everyday rural life of those days.

Last September, reports emerged that the wives of local government chairmen and officials from Adamawa traveled en masse to Istanbul, Turkiye, for development and leadership training, following similar trips by the chairmen themselves. Suleiman Toungo, Chairman of Toungo Local Government and the state ALGON chapter, justified the trips, arguing that just as the chairmen benefited from similar overseas training, their wives deserved leadership training to be able to support their spouses. He stated, “We did our training two months ago, so I do not see anything wrong in our wives going for training outside the country.

They are our wives and we need their advice. We are looking at the importance of training them on leadership, not the cost.’ This behavior has attracted widespread criticism. One council chairman only learned of the trip when asked for his wife’s passport details for a visa, calling the project ‘an abuse of public funds.’

Some stakeholders have called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate, labeling it a financial scandal. Others point to the risks posed by increased local government financial autonomy, referencing the Supreme Court judgment.

Online commentators have also criticised the development. Caleb Khalil described it as peculiar, questioning the contribution of local government chairmen’s wives to the local councils. Aliyu Ayotogo remarked that “in the North, where education struggles prevail, spending on frivolous activities over education is indefensible”.  

The Adamawa incident is not an isolated case. This has been the trend since the inception of the Fourth Republic. In early 2000, under Obasanjo’s administration, some staff of the Ministry of Finance were in London for training under a World Bank loan. As in the current case, they barely participated in the programme. They also went dancing Kokoma. For many, training overseas is always a tourism affair.

Although corruption has become embedded in civic culture, policy disorientation heightens the problem. The Supreme Court’s decision on local government autonomy, explained as a case law precedent, has inadvertently encouraged questionable actions, as seen recently in Adamawa.

One legislator noted that local governments now have more funds at their disposal, to the extent that he would have considered contesting at that level had he known. As previously argued, the Supreme Court’s decision conflicts with federal principles. It amounted to manipulating judicial review to serve the executive interests.

In theory, local governments are creations of their respective state governments in a federation. The current executive approach reifies local governments as tiers of the state system, legitimising the 774 local governments created arbitrarily nationwide. For clarity, state is employed not as a unit of government itself but as sovereign entity.

Mr President, have we forgotten the push for true federalism? It was a major pillar of our agitation for restructuring Nigeria. The Tenth Assembly should correct this by ensuring all matters related to local government fall under the jurisprudence of state legislatures.

If the intent behind financial autonomy was to address corruption, it may have instead exacerbated it.
Professor Akhaine is with the Department of Political Science, Lagos State University.