Labour Party’s candidate in the 2023 Enugu State governorship election, Chijioke Edeoga, has urged the Attorney General of the Federation to initiate constitutional reforms to transfer the responsibility of conducting local government elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Edeoga, who stated this in statement made available to journalists in Enugu on Tuesday, expressed optimism that this can only be achieved through a constitutional amendment, which would build on the recent Supreme Court judgment granting autonomy to local councils.
Specifically, he advocates for the deletion of Section 197(1)(b), which established state Independent Electoral Commissions, and an amendment to Section 153(1) to empower INEC to conduct local government elections. This, he believes, will ensure Nigerians benefit from the Supreme Court’s judgment and guarantee true autonomy for local governments.
The former chairman House Committee on Information, House of Representatives, stressed the importance of the third tier of government to national development, insisting that the autonomy being restored to elected officers of local governments would spark off rural development in ways that have not been witnessed in Nigeria since 1999.
“Local government administration is to national political and infrastructure development what micro, small, and medium-scale enterprises (MSME) are to national economic development – just as MSMEs represent the biggest employers of labour in most economies, council administration touches more lives on the aggregate than both states and federal government.
“In Nigeria for instance, where MSMEs are said to be capable of employing an equivalent of 84 percent of the population, the 774 local government areas in the country, if granted full financial and administrative autonomy, will have the potential to not just employ more people than all the 36 state governments, but also spike the incubation and growth of more businesses at grassroots level,” he said.
While reiterating the positive sentiments that followed the judgement of the Supreme Court by a majority of Nigerians, Edeoga admonished the Attorney General of the Federation to “without further delay the process that will secure this hugely reassuring autonomy to firmly cement the authority of local councils to develop to the full extent of the resources legitimately available to them.”
He explained that the sense of urgency stems from the possibility of state governors to continue to exercise undue influence on local government council Chairmen through the instruments of the state electoral commissions.
“Given the clear and present possibility that the intendment of the judgment which is transparency and accountability in the use of local government resources by duly elected officers of local governments might still be manipulated by governors in whose powers it still is to determine who gets elected as Chairmen of the councils.”
He noted that although Nigerians welcomed the judgment, they have equally pointed out that the judgment would be ineffectual without a corresponding amendment that guarantees relatively fairer and freer council elections.
Edeoga who admitted that an amendment process of some critical sections of the Constitution was going on, the particular section that affects local government autonomy should be isolated and its amendment fast-tracked to key into wat he described as the “national consensus” that trailed the Supreme Court judgement.
“To this end,” he said, “an Executive Bill to excise Section 197 1(b) of the Constitution which created the state Independence Electoral Commissions should be initiated by the office of the Attorney General pf the Federation. Section 153 (1) which created the INEC should also be amended to fully vest the national elections management body with the powers to conduct elections to local government councils. Efforts should be made to isolate the sections relating to local government elections from the basket of other amendments that have been proposed to the 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly and give it immediate attention to attain quick passage and Presidential assent.”
He called on both the Attorney General and the National Assembly to address the matter urgently to ensure a quick return of responsible local government administration in Nigeria.
“Speed is of the essence given that at least 22 of the 36 states currently run the local government areas in their respective states under undemocratic caretaker arrangements. This means that if the amendment is fast-tracked and approved by the President, elections in the local councils can be arranged to fall into a single calendar,” he said.
