By: Monday Munkaila, Gombe
It has been observed that the story of local governments in the country has by and large been one of marginalisation with State Governors rendering them as ineffectual appendages of the state government.
The assertion was made by the Director of FrontFoot Media Initiative, Sully Abu while delivering a paper titled: ‘Where Anything Goes – A reflection on Local Government Audits’ at a 2-day Audit Reporting Training organized by FrontFoot Media Initiative in Gombe.
According to him, “Governors in our democratic dispensation have hardly behaved better than their military predecessors whereby Councils were dissolved almost at will, errand boys made Councillors and their statutory allocations preyed upon.”
He also stated that, “Indeed, there are few areas of government where the governor’s writ looms large as local governments. Audit control mechanisms consequently suffer even more the shortcomings we see at the state government level.”
He stressed that, “The problem begins at the level of budget preparation. There is not much evidence of rigor save that budget estimates are prepared by the budget unit of the local council in liaison with all the departments in the council after which these are presented and defended at the Ministry of Local Government and finally before the public accounts committee of the state house of assembly.”
“When the budget is passed, it becomes a sacrosanct document not to be altered at the whim or caprice of any one individual, not even the Governor. The accountability provision with respect to audits is the same as the state government’s. Queries by the Auditor General where not satisfactorily answered are supposed to be a matter of interest for the public accounts committee and necessary sanctions imposed,” he added.
Sully Abu also said that,”But the accountability mechanisms suffer a distortion by the nature of the relationship between local and state governments. Where state governors have local governments under their thumb, procedure and rules are wont to be ignored if found to be inconvenient.”
He said that,”the result is that even more than at the state government level, anything goes. For many of our people their experience of local government is of harassment for tenement rates, harassment of petty traders and food sellers for all manner of levies and dues which are often arbitrary especially when they are collected through touts.”
According to him,”This is what has been called the agbero economy where there is a vast room for leakages. It is an instrument for power and control which in no way serves the end of accountability. Almost everywhere the running of local governments is arbitrary and opaque.”
The Veteran Journalists added that,”The local people hardly feel their presence save when they see the new local government chairman and his spouse or spouses decked out in gorgeous fineries and riding to ceremonies in the locality in brand new utility vehicles. But perhaps we can find a story that relieves the gloom of local governments performance and accountability.”
According to him,”The Gombe State Auditor General’s report for all the Eleven local governments in the state,the link which is on the platform created for this workshop gives meticulous detail of income, disbursements and shortfalls in the operations of the local governments.
It does provide a case study in the operations of local governments in the country. But that is as far as the good news goes.”
“The local governments rely almost completely on statutory allocations from the centre passed through the state government. The Auditor General report for the year ended 2021 says the 11 local governments recorded internally generated revenue (IGR) of about N320m in the year audited but received a whopping N25 billion as statutory allocation,” he observed.
He added that,”As is the case almost everywhere else in the country, the reasons for the abysmally poor level of locally generated revenue even when you take into consideration the crippling poverty levels at the grassroots are clear.”
He stressed that, “There is a very poor attitude to keeping basic accounting standards especially in the area of documentation for payments, as noted by the Gombe state auditor general for local governments in his report.”
The general practice across the country exemplified also in the report of the Ekiti state auditor general for 2020 and which was one of our case studies in this workshop series is non-compliance with laid down, basic accounting procedures such as for the retirement of payment vouchers, keeping records of locally generated revenue and remittance of such revenue.
Noted was the poor handling of receipt booklets and lack of evidence of punishment for officers who divert or fail to account for public funds under their control.
“This you must agree is a sorry state of affairs. It speaks of a lack of respect for the public they are meant to serve. The rot is further demonstrated in the lack of maintenance of public assets and their cannibalization,” he added.
Sully Abu then pointed out that,”To change the situation, we must go back to basics. Are we going to continue to run this lopsided federalism that is clearly not working? How can local governments – and state governments for that matter – operate with a higher sense of responsibility and accountability when resources simply flow in from elsewhere?”
“That’s the challenge before us all. Nigeria is clearly not working. We are here to figure out why and to nudge us,as members of an institution best placed to channel the public’s questions and anxieties, to take our responsibility more seriously,” he stressed.
He also stated that the fundamental question remains how to untether local governments from the stranglehold of state governors.
“Recently, many of you will recall, a former state governor, Senator Adams Oshiomhole spoke to this issue, lamenting the lack of transparency in the conduct of local government affairs, how so-called local government elections are a joke etc etc,” he added.
According to him,”The initial temptation was to pooh pooh his statement given his own practices as Governor of Edo State for Eight years. But it was on the basis of that experience and as Chairman of the APC that he approached President Muhammadu Buhari for his intervention to address the situation in concert with state Governors.”
“For his trouble, these Governors on the platform of his party, the APC, ganged up to remove him from office. There were of course many other factors at play. But it is an example that shows the power of vested interests in perpetuating our immiseration and why we must fight them,” Sully Abu added.
He however stressed that,”The media must lead the way by shining the light on attitudes and practices that hold us down.There was a time when no official government speech was complete without our being regaled with talk of local governments as government at the grassroots. This was meant to highlight their importance as governments closest to the people and more responsive to their basic needs. But what has been the reality?”
