By ‘Tunde Ogunmola
Local government is the closest government to the people, hence it’s termed grassroots government. As a result of its proximity to the people, this third tier of government in Nigeria is realistically meant to be a concrete reality to the people and not an abstract entity that is detached from them.
Owing of its closeness to the people at the grassroots, shouldn’t local government be able to feel, understand and promptly respond to the needs and expectations of the people under its watch?
The basic needs and demands of people in various communities might differ but a typical community will incontrovertibly want the following basic amenities: good and properly maintained feeder roads; well maintained primary healthcare centres and health facilities; well maintained drainage system; regular and proper refuse disposal scheme and its management; well-constructed and maintained blocks of classrooms and basic education; portable water supply; well managed market stalls; functional vocational training centres; social infrastructure, among others.
It however remain to be seen if various local governments in the country effectively and efficiently carry out these duties among other responsibilities to the satisfaction of the people under their purview.
Meanwhile, it is commonly convenient for administrators/chairmen of local government councils to habitually complain of paucity of funds to implement their statutory duties as enshrined in the Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. Section 162; sub-section 3 of the same 1999 Constitution made it mandatory for the federal government to allocate certain percentage of the federally collected revenue to local government councils just like other tiers of governments – Federal and States.
For the records, both federal and state governments are allocated 52.68% and 26.72% respectively from the federation account, while the local governments are gifted 20.60% from the same account.
According to a recent report by The Guardian newspaper, local governments have received more allocation from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) after the removal of subsidy from petroleum.
The newspaper said, “A review of FAAC documents published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), shows that when the federal government removed subsidies from the petroleum, thereby recording sharp increase in the revenue accruable to the government, the 774 local governments have received an average of N231.68 billion monthly.”
The upward review in the monthly allocation to local government councils notwithstanding, basic amenities such as feeder roads; primary healthcare and health facilities; classroom blocks are either dilapidated or grossly inaccessible. Local residents lives are not positively impacted either.
Suffice to say the constitutional duties of local governments are merely heard of than physically felt by people at the grassroots.
Local government councils administrators are fond of waiting for monthly allocation every month before anything can be done. And once the allocation ‘dropped’ and the monies expended, activities at the local governments return to a low ebb until the next allocation is available the month after. The councils are always caught in this vicious circle month in, month out, all year round till the tenure of the chairmen lapses. This ultimately calls into question the ingenuity of those that are entrusted with administration of the local governments. Governments are put in place to devise ingenious means of generating needed funds or revenues for integrated development purposes.
With exception of local governments in some south western states, especially Lagos state, and partially some southern part of the country, local governments are practically not responding to the needs and demands of the local dwellers.
There are two major sources of local governments finance or revenue – Internal and External Revenues. Internal sources otherwise known as Externally Generated Revenue (EGR) and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). The EGR are those sources through which local governments generate their funds/resources outside their territories. These include allocation from federal government, donations from philanthropists, foreign aids, recovered loots, allocation from state government, loan from banks etc. The IGR are sources from which local governments generate their resources within their territories. These include but not limited to, taxes; rates; petty trade fees; trade license fees; rents; stallage fees; marriage registry; investments etc.
However, the assured monthly allocation to local governments, has more often than not, brought about complacency, laziness and corruption in the administration of local governments in the country, in that local government administrators solely rely on monthly allocation and failed to harness or explore other sources of generating revenue.
They couldn’t simply think outside the box; thereby little or no efforts are made to make the local government self-sufficient and self-reliant through emphasis on IGR. Not a few of them have gotten accustomed to the allocation situation that thinking creatively to create other sources of revenue has become a rocket science. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said, “…we should get accustomed to not getting accustomed. Accustoming yourself to a situation gives you comfort, whereas change requires hard work and getting out of your comfort zone.”
The question is, is the monthly allocation of share from the Federation Account a disservice rather than blessing to the local government system in Nigeria?
Local Governments are where government impacts are mostly felt in terms of infrastructural development and provision of basic amenities to the people at the grassroots. And I quite agree in an affirmative manner that putting all these in place require steady flow of funds. One of the pathways to steady flow of funds is revenue generation.
I am of the strong opinion that making the local government system revenue generation oriented will bid farewell to perennial struggle with financial insolvency in the third tier of government. Generating revenue is one thing, maintaining fiscal discipline on those revenues generated is another thing, and allocation of the scarce resources wisely is also an important factor. Let me also quickly chip in that one of the reasons behind abandoned projects at the local councils is the inability of local governments administrators to wisely allocate resources. There are other factors though. This is a topic for another day.
It is also absolutely critical to note that financial slippages, wastes and as I had earlier mentioned, corruption are part of the bane that must be done away with in the administration of grassroots government.
‘Tunde Ogunmola, is a graduate of Local Government Administration and Development Studies from Lagos State University (LASU.)
