As the third tier of government in Nigeria, the local government is often paid scant attention by political pundits, the media, policymakers and the general public alike. Local Government Chairmen walk the streets unnoticed because no one gives a hoot about them. Governance at the local level has been relegated to the background in an era when the president, federal legislators and state governors, suck all the air in the Nigerian political space. 

Ideally, state governments should have no business fixing those pothole infested roads in your neighbourhoods, providing pipe-borne water or providing desks for primary schools. That should be the primary responsibility of the local councils and local constituencies. 

Only a few Nigerians bother about voting during local council elections. On the day of local government elections, young people inflate weather-beaten footballs, hit the closed streets and engage themselves in a game of soccer. Others purchase petrol to power generators while reclining on sofas to watch Premier League football or movies all day long. They wouldn’t be bothered. 

Only a few Nigerians bother about voting for their local representatives as well.

But that shouldn’t be the case. The constitution stipulates that the local government should be the closest to the people and should provide the basis for good governance in a democracy. However, the other two tiers of government have successfully weakened and emasculated the local government through the years. 

Local governments should be the fulcrum and cradle for governance and should provide basic amenities for the people. However, the pyramid has been upturned in Nigeria. 

Every month, state governors make this gut-wrenching bee-line to Abuja to receive allocations from the federal government. The federal government takes the lion’s share of 52.68 per cent, 36 states share 26.72 per cent among themselves, while the nation’s 774 local governments are entitled to just 20.68 per cent in federal revenues.

But here’s the thing: state governors do not hand this percentage to the local governments wholesale. They retain this 20.68 per cent and hand a pittance to the local governments at their whims and caprices. Some local governments are left with allocations so meagre, the amount can hardly fix damaged drainage down the street corner. Local government offices are so unkempt and shorn of paint, they retain the feel of ghost houses. 

All the noise about restructuring the Nigerian federation without empowering the local governments and making that arm of government the most functional in a federation in order to ensure development from the grassroots, won’t mean a thing. 

The phrase ‘local government autonomy’ has become a buzz phrase for politicians looking for how to win the next election, but nothing has fundamentally been done to make the local government truly autonomous.  

In a 2017 interview he granted Sahara Reporters, Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana said: “in as much as state governments have won cases to ensure the legal autonomy of elected local councils, they have continued to appoint caretaker committees or sole administrators to man them. 

“Although the federal government has been restrained from seizing the monthly statutory allocations accruing to local government councils, some state governors are alleged to have turned round to corner the funds”. 

Next Monday, a section of the Nigerian media would play a part in returning some much-needed attention to the local government—that almost neglected tier of government. The House of Representatives Eti-Osa Constituency debate will hold on Tuesday, February 4, 2019 at the Civic Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos, from 10am. 

Wellington, Obanikoro, Adimefe and Bakare would engage themselves in a debate of ideas about how they intend to improve the lot of the people of Eti-Osa through common-sense legislation. 

The debate, which is organised by Media Room Hub, in collaboration with BBC Africa and Pulse Nigeria, will be aired live on all BBC Nigerian platforms and on PulseTV. Olatunji Samuel and BBC’s Busola Afolayan will moderate the show.

“The debate is aimed at providing the electorate a platform to engage with the candidates”, ThisDay newspapers writes in an article announcing the event. 

As Nigeria looks to return governance and power back to the grassroots where they should belong, debates of this nature at constituency and community levels should be really encouraged and given maximum attention. Everyone has to get involved in returning local constituencies and governments to their pride of place in the federation. Because when the local governments and constituencies work, Nigeria works. That was the idea behind the creation of the ‘local government’ after all. 

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