Background
The 1999 constitution (as amended) stated as follows in Part II Section7 (1):
“The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the government of every state shall subject to section 8 of this constitution, ensure their existence under a law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.
(2) the person authorized by law to prescribe the area over which a local government council may exercise authority shall;
(a) define such area as clearly as practicable; and
(b) ensure, to the extent to which it may be reasonably justifiable, that in defining such area regard is paid to
(i) the common interest of the community in the area
(ii) traditional association of the community, and
(iii) administrative convenience
(3) it shall be the duty of a local government council within the state to participate in economic planning and development of the area referred to in subsection (2) of this section and to this end an economic planning board shall be establish by a law enacted by the House of Assembly of the state.
(4) the government of a state shall ensure that every person who is entitled to vote or be voted for at an election to a House of Assembly shall have the right to vote or be voted for at an election to a local government council.
(5) the function to be conferred by law upon local government councils shall include those set out in the fourth Schedule to this constitution
(6) subject to the provision of this constitution-
(a) The National Assembly shall make provision for Statutory Allocation of public revenue to local government councils in the federation; and
(b) the House of Assembly of a state shall make provisions for Statutory allocation of public revenue to local government councils within the state.”
From the fore going, the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria as amended made adequate provisions for the protection of the local government councils in Nigeria.
It is worrisome that since May 6th 2016, when Alhaji Yahaya Bello appointed “Administrators” for the 21 local government councils without any law or pronouncement or resolution of the Kogi State House of Assembly, no one knows the statutory allocations accruing to each of the 21 local government councils in the state.
It is disturbing that the governor pronounced during the inauguration of the REVENUE HOUSE on the 27th of January 2017, that he had granted autonomy to local government councils in the state. The question is, Can the local government councils be autonomous when they are not democratically constituted?
The 2017 State Budget as presented on 22nd of December 2016 and assented to on Wednesday February 22nd 2017 by the Governor of the State Alhaji Yahaya Bello, did not make provision of any kind for the conduct of local government election, as only N18m was provided for Kogi State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) and a paltry sum of N450m was provided for under the office of the Secretary to State Government (SSG), as subvention to SIEC, and no mention of local government elections in the entire Budget document.
It was shameful the contradictions and arguments during the Budget defence between the SIEC Chairman and the SSG, and shows clearly that there were no harmonisation between government agencies in the state, as the SIEC Chairman presented a budget of over N1b, that were not contained in the State Budget Proposal.
It is a known fact that there is no clear agenda for the conduct of local government elections in Kogi state as at today, despite that the current “Administrators” being in office since May 16th 2016 and the law says that SIEC shall make the timetable for the conduct of elections known to the registered political parties and other stakeholders 90 days before the conduct of such elections.
The implications of this constitutional negligence and illegality on the part of the state government, is that these current “Administrators” would spend 1 year without elections being conducted. Now that there were no provisions for the conduct of these local government elections in the approved 2017 budget, would there be a Supplementary Budget for the conduct of these Local government councils, since the law does not permit Caretakership or any other nomenclature in the running of the local government affairs other than democratically elected councils?
Where is the Statutory Allocations to the 21 Local government councils since May 2016?
We challenge the Kogi State government to publish the Statutory Allocations from the Federation account to the 21 Local government councils and what it had done with it.
As at March 2017, there are no budgets pending before the Kogi State House of Assembly for local governments councils even when they claim that the monies being spent by the illegal “Administrators” where appropriated by the immediate past elected local government councils. The law does not permit the spending of unappropriate public funds at all levels of government.
We call on the government of Alhaji Yahaya Bello to immediately put machinery in place for the conduct of elections to local government councils without delay according to the provisions of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria as amended.
Signed:
Idris Miliki Abdul
Executive Director,
Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution (CHRCR),
Lokoja.
