An analysis of the role of state and local government leaders: Challenges and problems (2)

By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Ugwu, S.C., and Ugwuja D.I. in their work titled: The Role of Local Government in Nigeria Iosr Journal of Current Issues in Arts and Humanities, (2016) identified and discussed certain key roles played by the LGs. According to the erudite authors, fundamentally, the local government is aimed at:

1. Promoting participatory democracy at the grassroots;
2. Mobilizing local reserves for rapid social and economic development;
3. Providing certain basic amenities and services at the rural areas;
4. Encouraging initiative, and leadership potential in managing local affairs;
5. Development of agriculture and natural resources other than the exploitation of mineral;
6. Provision and maintenance of primary adult and vocational education;
7. Decentralizing political power and institutionalizing co-operative federalism.

The above, according to them, could be summarized into two major sectors. Local governments perform two key roles in the system; political and socio-economic roles.

POLITICAL ROLES

The principal issue here is that of democratisation. Local government’s political role is to serve as an instrument for promoting local democracy. The local government is well placed to mobilise the people politically through political education, political participative interaction, enlightenment and actions. In this regard, local governments have become useful democratic platforms for electing leaders at the grassroots levels of government. Furthermore, leaders who get elected at local levels and serve as representatives of the people in the local government council are prepared through such experience for higher responsibilities.

Local government is therefore a training ground for politicians and leaders or the primary source for leadership recruitment. Such training includes that of representativeness and political accountability. Another political role is the provision of law and order. Local governments work with the police, other security agencies and traditional rulers to enforce law and maintain security in rural areas. Moreover and in order to enhance responsive governance, local government serves as a two-way channel of communication between the government and the governed. Just as it transmits the decision of the government to the local people, it also conveys the demands or feedback from the local people to governments.

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SOCIO-ECONOMIC ROLES

The exercise of democracy and human rights can only be meaningful if demands and policies can be translated into physical development, including the provision of basic socio-economic services. Such services are expressed in the functions of the local government, which include basic health, basic education, agriculture and revenue generation. People expect such services to be delivered to make any meaning of democracy and bureaucracy at the local level. It should be noted that in providing such services, LGs have to work with community groups and citizenry to harness community energies as inputs into development. In local government therefore, there can be a totally government-initiated development, a joint exercise with the community and completely community-initiated self-help projects.

FUNCTIONS OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT:

We submit that one practical way by which the local governments are enabled to perform their political and socio-economic roles efficiently is through navigating the various functions delineated in the Constitution.

By the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution (pursuant to Section 7 thereof), local governments are charged with certain responsibilities and functions.

The main functions of a local government council are as follows:
(a) the consideration and the making of recommendations to a State commission on economic planning or any similar body on –

(i) the economic development of the State, particularly in so far as the areas of authority of the council and of the State are affected, and

(ii) proposals made by the said commission or body;

(b) collection of rates, radio and television licences;

(c) establishment and maintenance of cemeteries, burial grounds and homes for the destitute or infirm;

(d) licensing of bicycles, trucks (other than mechanically propelled trucks), canoes, wheelbarrows and carts;

(e) establishment, maintenance and regulation of slaughterhouses, slaughter slabs, markets, motor parks and public conveniences;

(f) construction and maintenance of roads, streets, street lightings, drains and other public highways, parks, gardens, open spaces, or such public facilities as may be prescribed from time to time by the House of Assembly of a State;

(g) naming of roads and streets and numbering of houses;

(h) provision and maintenance of public conveniences, sewage and refuse disposal;

(i) registration of all births, deaths and marriages;

(j) assessment of privately owned houses or tenements for the purpose of levying such rates as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of a State; and

(k) control and regulation of – out-door advertising and hoarding,

(l) movement and keeping of pets of all description,

(m) shops and kiosks,

(n) restaurants, bakeries and other places for sale of food to the public,

(o) laundries, and

(p) licensing, regulation and control of the sale of liquor.

(2) The functions of a local government council shall include participation of such council in the Government of a State as respects the following matters:

the provision and maintenance of primary, adult and vocational education;

(b)       the development of agriculture and natural resources, other than the exploitation of materials;

(c)       the provision and maintenance of health services; and

(d)       such other functions as may be conferred on a local government council by the House of Assembly of the State.

 If the local government councils are granted autonomy in line with the above constitutional provisions, there will be massive development in the grassroots. The challenge we have presently is that the States have enacted laws to take away these responsibilities from the local governments and unless and until those laws are repealed, the local governments will remain in political and financial bondage.

CHALLENGES AND PROBLEMS MILITATING AGAINST LEADERSHIP SYNERGY BETWEEN STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

1. Politics of Sectionalism, Tribalism & Ethnic Bigotry:

A typical political leader in Africa tends to wear his tribal identity like a badge of honour. Leadership synergy then becomes a virtual impossibility when a leader from a particular political extraction is unable to see eye to eye with another leader from another extraction within the same political community. In multi-ethnic geopolitical expressions which most States in Nigeria fall into, this ought not to be. For any meaningful grassroots development to take place at the state and local government levels, both the governor and local government chairmen, once elected by the people (whether voted by a particular group or not) should learn to be detribalized, develop a large heart and pursue the greater good and prosperity for all.

1. Fluidity of Partisan Ideologies:

In a multi-party system like ours where indiscriminate defections from one political party to another for egoistic rather that ideological interests characterize the modus operandi of politicians, there is bound to be lack of cohesion, lack of solid ideological continuity in political programmes and projects, etc.

iii.       Godfatherism, Ego and Power Tussle:

It is not uncommon to witness the clash of political egos. This may be between a political godfather and godson. The former wants to have his way. The latter would rather not have it so. One vows to make the polity ungovernable for the other, apparently forgetting that it’s not all about the leader but the people. So they go as far as sponsoring banditry and terrorism and while the battle of egos rages between the two titanic elephants, the grass below suffers the pounding of the great hoofs! What’s more? Development at both the State and grassroots/local levels suffers. Grassroots democracy is run aground. We can see this playing out in Rivers State presently.

1. Leadership Incompetence:

Leadership synergy will be hard where people who lack the basic leadership skills find their way to power. It is not unusual to find individuals who have virtually zilch leadership experience at any level to find their way to the corridors of political power. Because they lack the requisite leadership skills and capacity, they find it difficult to synergize with others to build a team.

1. Propaganda & Campaign of Calumny:

The rather infantile behaviour by which political opponents deploy the use of propaganda and smear media campaigns, hauling unprintable written and verbal muck at each other has unfortunately become the trademark and stock-in-trade of most politicians in Nigeria. They constantly engage in brutal winner-take-it-all, dog-eat-dog campaigns. They criminalise dissent, demonise political disagreements and do a lot of partisan witch-hunt, completely relegating the interest of the people to the background. How then can there be sustainable leadership synergy between a State governor and other leaders and local government chairmen/leaders that could strengthen statewide as well as grassroots democracy and development?

1. Lack of Autonomy:

 For a long while, the problem of lack of autonomy among LGAs on account of interference by State Governments was the order of the day. There has therefore continued to be leadership tussles and clashes between the State and LGs. In addition to withholding funds, some State Governors have unconstitutionally removed democratically elected Local Government Chairmen and replaced them with “Caretaker Committee Chairmen” who are often more accountable to the Governors than to the local populace. This undermines democratic governance and severely disrupts the functioning of Local Governments. Consequently, many of Nigeria’s 774 Local Governments have been rendered ineffective, failing to serve their communities and fulfil their intended roles.