The reform of local government administration in Nigeria is still largely a work in progress. From the past military era to the present democratic dispensation, several reform experiments have been carried out with little success. With all the debates and national discourse, there is no single hands-on solution to the myriad of problems hindering effective governance at the grassroots level.
This has been partly blamed on the quality of personnel in charge, the lack of accountability and as well as capacity for Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to cater for administrative costs. In recent times, there has been intense agitation for financial autonomy and devolution of power to the council areas to enhance their performance capacity as the third tier of government. Ogun State under the leadership of Governor Dapo Abiodun is one of the first states to pass a financial autonomy bill into law to allow local government administration to be viable enough to fulfill the statutory obligations assigned to it.
It, therefore, came as a rude shock when the suspended Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government, Wale Adedayo, went to town, accusing the Governor of withholding funds belonging to local governments, leading to zero allocation.
To set the record straight, under the present administration, the state and local governments run different bank accounts. So, monies from the federation allocation account go straight into the local government account. And neither the governor nor the state Accountant General is a signatory to the account. The state does not even care to know when the money gets in there because the distribution of it is not the responsibility of the governor.
However, like the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), the state Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC) which consists of all the stakeholders, including the Permanent Secretary (PS), and local government chairmen, always meet every month to debate and decide on the issue of ‘first-line charges’ and how the monies so assigned are disbursed. ‘First-line charges’ consist of four variables: salaries and pensions of LG staff, salaries and pensions of public primary school teachers, salaries and pensions of health workers, and traditional institutions. Before the advent of this administration in May 2019, there was nothing like the JAAC meeting. The idea behind the ‘first-line charges’ is to ensure that salaries are promptly paid as and when due.
For the record, a total of N5.1 billion was shared by the councils as allocation in August, while in June N4.4 billion was and in July, N4.4 billion was shared. Also, In May, N4.5 billion was shared. This has already been confirmed by the Chairman of Ijebu-Ode Local Government, who also doubles as the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) Chairman in the state, Hon. Emilola Gazal.
Other than this, there is said to be an outstanding of N28 billion Pay As You Earn (PAYE) that the LGs owed the state government. Now, these are the questions to ask. Is Adedayo aware of the JAAC meeting or not? What did he do with the monthly imprest of N3 million each local government receives from the state government? Has he not shared the harmonized Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by the state government? If he has, then, where is the issue of zero allocation coming from?
As official records of the state government show, there are three classes of shared revenues, namely: transport, signage, and land use charge. These three IGRs have been harmonised and the proceeds of it are shared equally among the state and local governments. What happened to his share of the funds? Is he unaware that local governments owed the state N28 billion PAYE?
These are some of the issues Adedayo would be interrogated on when he appears before the Councilors in Ijebu East Local Government Area of Ogun State on September 14 to answer other sundry allegations of maladministration and financial mismanagement leveled against him by the legislature.
For his mindless hell-raising, there is an intriguing interplay of deceit and insincerity. Perhaps, what Adedayo wants is a return to the old order in which the Federal Government put the payment of salaries of primary school teachers under the local government control. He is aggrieved that primary school administration and control, of primary healthcare delivery services are not left to the residual control of local governments.
That cannot happen again because the failure of the 1976 local government reform and 1979 federal constitution which placed the maintenance of primary education under the statutory authority of local government councils is comprehensive enough to dissuade anybody from contemplating such a policy reversal. In order to assist local government councils in achieving their functions under that constitution, the Local Government Councils Education Authorities (LGEA) were established in each local government council and as subsidiaries of the National Primary Education Commission under Decree 31 of 1988, and charged with several responsibilities related to primary education management and financing.
A return to such an inglorious era is inconceivable at this age. Never again will Nigeria fall back to the abyss of that past era when primary school teachers and primary health workers were dehumanized and deprived of the rewards of their labour with several months of unpaid salaries. Up till date, the ‘ghost’ of the effects of primary schools left in the hands of the local governments in the past has continued to haunt our education system.
For this reason, when debate recently ensued about the autonomy of local government, primary school teachers under the banner of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUJ) were the first to react, warning the Federal Government not to take them back to the age-old stranglehold of unpaid salaries under the control of local government councils.
The National President of the NUT, Michael Olukoya-Alogba, re-echoing the resentment during their peaceful protest, said: “The renewed agitation for local government autonomy has made it imperative for NUT to sensitise stakeholders and the general public on the dangers inherent in handing over the affairs of primary education to local government councils.
“Primary school education has its own budget and a percentage is meant for salaries and allowances. That percentage should be taken away from the local government tier. We are not against local government autonomy. If we attempt to put primary education under the purview of local government administration, we shall be going back to the analog age. We will not allow that to happen.”
The failure of local governments to pay teachers’ salaries in the past is the rationale behind the creation of joint accounts by the Federal Government for the state and local governments. It is based on this arrangement that some states have evolved the policy of removing the primary school teachers’ salaries before the allocation is disbursed to various councils.
In October 2014, the National Assembly amended Section 124 of the 1999 Constitution allowing local councils to function as a tier of government, independent of state government control, thus, granting the 774 local government councils full financial and administrative autonomy. Nevertheless, there is still a general lack of accountability at the local level. It, therefore, becomes imperative for states to play their supervisory role in the interest of good governance for the development of the grassroots.
This, in essence, is the reason for the JAAC meeting where decisions relating to issues of workers’ salaries and persons for retired civil servants are taken care to ensure prompt payment. The state also finds it necessary to monitor funds disbursement to ensure that some council areas are not put at a permanent disadvantage, especially those in the rural areas which have lower capacity for IGR generation. Otherwise, there will be no development at the grassroots.
It is even now more obvious that without such an arrangement, unstable characters like Adedayo would have collapsed the local government system with financial recklessness such as the ones contained in the long list of allegations leveled against him by the councilors in their suspension order.
To discernible minds, the option of sanction is timely because he is already a lost member of the All Progressives Congress (APC). No one can rise above the circumstances of his emergence. In the first instance, would he have been elected as a chairman without the support of the governor? For taking the matter to the public, he had already signed out before he went to town raising unfounded allegations. It is unimaginable that anyone would accuse the governor who worked tirelessly to ensure the emergence of the council bosses of engaging in any act that can jeopardize the development at the grassroots. But like a man who wakes up with a lost memory, Adedayo has lost sense of where he is coming from. And he has found a new paymaster who is the writer of the script that is being played. Even if the governor is magnanimous enough to accept his apologies; he will not change, as nothing can make a leopard change its black spots. For so long he is the only black sheep among the council chairman, he should be ignored while he continues the ranting of an ant.
Salako contributes this piece through Tundesalako@gmail.com
Salako wrote from Okeagbede, Imeko-Afon LGA of Ogun State.
Tunde Salako: Ogun council funds: Has Adedayo lost sense of memory
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