By Bolanle BOLAWOLE
The Supreme Court decision that federally-allocated funds be paid directly to the local governments (LGs) has raised serious concerns about whether we are actually practising Federalism and, if we are, what variant of Federalism. The apex court’s decision was at the instance of the Federal Government (FG) that dragged the 36 state governments to court. LG funds coming from the Federation Account used to go directly to the LGs but because the LGs were embezzling and or mismanaging the funds, so much so that many of them could no longer pay the salaries of primary school teachers and other LG workers, the State and Local Government Joint Account was created.

Now, we have forgotten about that and are going back to the discredited system. What is the assurance that history will not repeat itself? As usual, we shied away from punishing the culprits and making them object lessons to serve as a deterrent to others. We soon found out, to our chagrin, that the new arrangement we ran to for succour was so opaque that it allowed the states to corner and dispense LG funds at their whims and caprices. That way, the States have been accused of starving the LGs of funds. This starvation is, in turn, given as the reason why the LGs, touted as the nearest semblance of government to the people at the grassroots, have been unable to perform their obligations.

Rather than call out the erring governors, name and shame them and bring them to book, we are again running away from confronting the problem headon. It is expected, therefore, that with the decision to send funds to the LGs over and above the head of state governors, the third tier of government will now be able to discharge its obligations and if they fail, they will now have no excuse for not measuring up. Better still, the governors will no longer be the touted reason why the LGs are unable to deliver. But I am sure you know that failures will always manufacture excuses. Awijare kii tan l’enu nwon!

The FG’s decision to go to court, the Supreme Court’s judgment and many of the comments that have trailed the apex court’s decision show that many of us, in government and outside of it, do not have a clear understanding of what Federalism is; hence, we injure our long-term interests with some of the half-baked, hare-brained decisions that we take, this one especially. In our characteristic manner, which is often referred to as the Nigerian factor, the Nigerian system or the typical Nigerian way of doing things, we run away from problems rather than confront them.

And, in doing so, we jump from the frying pan right into the fire. When we are not doing that, we are throwing money at problems. We cut corners and prefer the fire brigade approach to going after real, long-lasting solutions. The Tinubu administration is already one year old. If it had summoned “the courage” to declare an agrarian revolution the day it assumed office, instead of “fuel subsidy is gone”, and had started planting yams, cassava, maize, pepper, tomatoes, onion, etc.; by now our barns and silos would be full of farm produce instead of the knee-jerk decision of throwing our doors open to all manner of importation of food items. The strain on the already comatose Naira is one thing; the disincentive to our local farmers is another. But that is the already established Nigerian way of doing things!

It is said that he who pays the piper dictates or calls the tune. Now that the FG will pay LGs directly, it is wrong to describe it as autonomy. It is merely an exchange of one master for another. Only time will tell which of the two masters – State or Federal – will be a worse task master. Elders say until a troublesome wife tastes two husbands, she is unable to realize which of the two is saner. That was what the children of biblical Israel discovered in 1 Kings 12: 4 (KJV) when they told Rehoboam to lessen their burden but their new king told them: “My father (Solomon) made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions”!

Let us, therefore, hope that those celebrating the so-called autonomy granted the LGs by the Supreme Court are not celebrating too early. Again, elders say when the devil gifts someone a cap, he demands for the person’s head in return! So, it is “Not Yet Uhuru” for LGs; they cannot yet shout “Euruka” and we cannot yet tell them “Bravo”! Between the State governors and the FG, which will be Solomon and which will be Rehoboam? Time , as they say, will tell!

Let us consider two comments on this issue from Omoyele Sowore, political activist, and Prince Doyin Okupe, medical doctor-turned-politician. Sowore was reported as saying that the Supreme Court judgment would make no difference. He said: “As long as Nigerian state governors control the State Electoral machinery, ruthlessly rig LG elections and install their minions, the Supreme Court ruling would remain ineffective” Sowore is correct! Didn’t you see how the party in power in any state always wins any LG elections conducted by the State Electoral Commission 100%, as if other political parties do not exist in the state?

The new law will even make State governors and the political party in power in any state more desperate to keep it all within the house. Many of our governors demand and are treated like tin-gods. Even if you send funds directly to LG accounts, the LG chairpersons will withdraw the money themselves, if so directed by His Excellency, and cart it to the governor with trembling hands and on bent knees!

Now, what solution did Sowore proffer? He said the Federal Government-controlled INEC should conduct LG elections! More centralization; less federalism! Running away from a problem against the advice of the oracle, Olawale, in Ola Rotimi’s “The gods are not to blame”, quickly met his nemesis. A similar bind is what we are getting ourselves into here. When the FG is the piper that dictates the tune to all 774 LGs and is also the controller of INEC, the electoral umpire that is being asked to conduct LG elections, what dictatorship is more vicious and complete? We all witnessed how President Olusegun Obasanjo used “Federal might” to seize Lagos LG funds during, interestingly, the tenure of Tinubu as the Lagos State governor.

But to think that this Supreme Court judgment has been triggered by a president who, as governor, fought and won many landmark battles against the centrist presidency of Obasanjo in the name of democracy and defence of the principles of Federalism beggars belief! Tinubu as governor was unequivocal that the creation, administration and control of LGs under our Federalism MUST BE within the purview of States and NEVER of the FG. What has changed other than that Tinubu has moved up from being governor to being the president? Did Tinubu himself not manage LG funds at his whims and caprices when he was the governor of Lagos State? True, then, is the saying that until the shoe is on the other foot, you never can tell!

With the same breath that the Supreme Court in December 2004 declared Obasanjo’s seizure of Lagos State LG funds as illegal, it also declared the 37 additional LGs created by Tinubu inchoate; meaning that they were yet to fully fulfill all the conditions that would qualify them as LGs that can be recognized under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). What Tinubu then did, rather than kowtow, was to change the nomenclature of the additional LGs that he created to “Local Council Development Areas (LCDA)” subsumed under the constitutionally-recognized LGs out of which they were excised. Federal allocations sent in the name of the LGs recognized by the Constitution were then shared between the LGs and LCDAs created out of them on a formula dictated by Tinubu or whoever. That remains in force till today.

With the 2024 Supreme Court ruling, will the “mother” LG still continue to feed the parasitic “babies” called LCDA? What happens if the “mother” LG decides otherwise, especially if they happen to belong to different political parties? Other States (Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo states, for instance) have followed the Tinubu example of creating LCDAs. Those created by the late governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, were recently declared illegal by the court.

Can this, then, be the “political confusion” that Okupe referred to in his own submission? The prince said: “The Supreme Court has declared in a landmark constitutional judgement that it is unconstitutional for state governments to hold on to LGA funds. It also went ahead to direct the FG to pay the 774 LGAs directly. On the surface and judging by our recent history, this political judgement sounds good and it is a great relief to the LGAs who have hitherto been financially emasculated and starved of their lawful revenues by state governors, thereby preventing them from being administratively and developmentally functional at the grassroots levels. Many of those who have erroneously clamored for LGA autonomy, including the FG who is the plaintiff in this case, must feel victorious and justified. However, I see it differently. I see a major constitutional aberration and political confusion here. I insist that the LGAs are not part of the federating units under our federalism, which unequivocally is the union between the Central government (FG) and the sub-nationalities (States) only.”

I concur with Okupe that LGs are not federating units. Going forward, I make bold to say that even the 36 States as presently constituted are not federating units but military creation and imposition beginning with the creation of 12 states on 5 May, 1967 by the then military Head of State, Yakubu Gowon. The authentic federating units were those agreed upon over many constitutional conferences, meetings and negotiations here in Nigeria and in London, consequent upon which we gave ourselves the 1960 Independence Constitution and the political structure that it gave birth to.

Even the 1963 so-called Republican constitution does not, in my opinion, qualify because it was a “diktat” imposed on the Western Region through the collaboration and conspiracy of the two other regions – the North and the East – to whittle down the strength of the West, frustrate, emasculate and capture it – which they eventually succeeded in achieving. As a confirmation of their bad intentions, demands for a similar creation of regions out of the North and East were ignored.

Former governor of Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose, says no one can emerge as LG chairman without the endorsement and support of Mr. Governor. I dare to say that there have been exceptions but Fayose’s position is, unfortunately, the general rule in the country today. In his characteristic manner of speech, Fayose declared that it is impossible to take the “baby” (LGs) away from the “mother” (State government)! Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde, said the governors will continue to do what is in the best interest of their people. The governor of Kwara State and chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, described the apex court’s ruling as a big relief for state governors now discharged from the obligation of carrying the can for the LGs.

For eight years, the Muhammadu Buhari administration destroyed our economy; we did nothing. Today, we are facing the consequences. If we similarly keep quiet now – or even applaud – when what remains of our federalism is being taken away with more powers being concentrated at the Centre, we will also confront the consequence in future. And it will be dire! In the hands of a dictator, this new law may spell doom for our democracy.

For your information, corruption is no less rampant at the LG level than at State and Federal levels. What the Supreme Court judgment may achieve, therefore, is the democratization of corruption by making more funds available for the third tier of government to play monkey games with! Mark my words: Competition to become LG chairman will become more cut-throat and do-or-die with this Supreme Court judgement!

Having said that, the positives in that judgment must also be acknowledged if we do not seek to throw away the baby with the bath water: Outlawing LG caretaker committees and preventing state governors from whimsically removing LG chairpersons must be applauded as the right step in the right direction.

But borrow me sense, as they say: will the 774 LGs also throng Abuja every month with begging bowls in their hands, like their big brother the State Governments, each time the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission shares money to the three tiers of government from the Federation Account? Are we reducing or makng worse the already suffocating cost of governance that the same citizens, some of who are applauding the Supreme Court judgment, have vociferously complained about? Are we clear in our head? Are we okay?

* Former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, BOLAWOLE was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of THE WESTERNER newsmagazine. He writes the ON THE LORD’S DAY column in the Sunday Tribune and TREASURES column in New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.