LG elections and administration in Nigeria

 

“Beyond the abysmally low turnout of voters, the elections revealed a persisting capacity deficit with respect to human and financial resources and technical expertise required for successful election administration at the local level. It also revealed the absence of a robust legal framework for LGA elections that can sufficiently guarantee electoral integrity, enable political inclusion and regulate political party conduct in the elections. The election also raises major concerns on; the quality of leadership at the local level, the independence and autonomy of local government structure and key institutions like the State Independent Electoral Commission.”

– YIAGA Africa preliminary report on Lagos State Local Government election of July 24, 2021

Local government is regarded as the third tier of government in Nigeria. The argument of political pundits is that it is not a federating unit. They say that in the classical definition of federalism, according to Sir Kenneth Clinton Wheare, only the federal and the states are regarded as federating units. Thus, in Nigeria, local governments are under the control of the state. However, despite not being a federating unit, the existing 768 Local Governments and six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory are duly recognised by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.

In case you did not know, Nigeria, technically speaking, does not have 774 Local Government Areas as erroneously being peddled. Section 3 (6) of the 1999 CFRN, as amended, says, “There shall be seven hundred and sixty-eight local government areas in Nigeria as shown in the second column of Part 1 of the First Schedule to this Constitution and six area councils as shown in Part II of that schedule.

The same constitution says in Section 7 (1) that, “The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed”. In Section 7 (4), it says, “The Government of a State shall ensure that every person who is entitled to vote or be voted for at an election to a House of Assembly shall have the right to vote and be voted for at an election to a local government council.”

Nigeria is one of the very few countries in the world with more than one election management bodies. Broadly speaking, the country has the Independent National Electoral Commission and the State Independent Electoral Commission. Both are creations of the Nigerian Constitution.  INEC was created by Section 153 (f) as one of the 14 federal executive bodies while SIEC was established by Section 197 as one of the three state executive bodies. While INEC conducts elections into the office of the president, governors, Senate, House of Representatives, state Houses of Assembly and the six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory, SIECs conduct elections into the positions of chairman and councilors of the 768 Local Government Areas. Each of the 36 states in Nigeria is expected to have its own SIEC. Therefore, technically speaking, Nigeria can be said to have, not two, but 37 electoral management bodies.

Because each of the 36 SIECs is independent of one another, they conduct the election into the Local Governments of their states at different times. Indeed, each state House of Assembly makes laws for the procedure, form and structure of their local governments. For example, Lagos and Ogun states, on Saturday, July 24, 2021, held their local government elections. While the elected chairmen and councilors in Lagos have a four-year tenure, their counterparts in Ogun State have a three-year tenure. While some run a parliamentary system of having their supervisory councillors appointed among the councillors, others run a presidential system in which case supervisory councilors are appointed outside of the elected councillors.

And talking about the quality of local government elections in Nigeria, it is noteworthy that last Saturday’s elections in Lagos and Ogun states largely followed the same pattern. First, the two states have the culture of holding elections as and when due; this is unlike the situation in some states where LG elections are held at irregular intervals while unconstitutional caretaker committees are put in place by the governors. The elections were also contested by many political parties. It was reported that the elections were largely peaceful even though the two states were under lockdown for the period of the polls as there was restriction of movements. It is also commendable that aside from the provision of list of registered political parties and Voter Register for Lagos and Ogun Independent Electoral Commissions by INEC, the federal electoral management body also provided Smart Card Readers for the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission. On the flip side, the polls recorded low turnout as voters seem to have boycott the election. It was also reported that there was no strict observance of COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical protocols of hand-washing or use of sanitiser, temperature check, physical distancing and wearing of nose masks by the electorate.

According to one of the civil society organisations accredited to observe the elections in Lagos State, YIAGA Africa, “Lagos State LGAs elections were characterised by similar shortcomings observed in other elections in Nigeria. These include late opening of polls and deployment of election materials, disregard for the electoral guidelines, confusion over the non-inclusion of a contesting party on the ballot, non-deployment of political party agents and voter apathy.” The group said further in its preliminary report on the Lagos poll that “Voter participation in these elections is abysmally low as citizens showed lack of interest in the process. This presents a disturbing trend in a state like Lagos with 6, 570, 291 registered voters and poses a major challenge to the practice of democracy in the state and Nigeria. With the level of turnout in the LGA elections, governance at the local levels in the state for the next four years will be by individuals who are elected by a very small fraction of the voting population.”

When asked about the low voter turnout, my response is that it cannot but be so because the electorate are expressing their disenchantment with unfulfilled campaign promises of previous elected representatives at the council level. As Mario Cuomo famously noted, politicians campaign in poetry, but they govern in prose. Our elected leaders from ward to the presidential seat are fond of feeding the electorate with excuses. As such, disinterest of the electors in voting should be seen as vote of no confidence in the elected.

Other reasons for the poor voter turnout include late commencement of voting, inability of the voters to find their Polling Units, restriction of movement which prevent many voters whose Polling Units are far from their residence to go out, fear of violence and the fear of COVID-19 pandemic. There is also the perception of bias by the electorate in the SIEC. This is because most LG elections produce 100 per cent victory for the ruling party in the state.

However, I congratulate the newly elected local council leaders in Ogun and Lagos states and enjoin them all to deliver on their campaign promises. I also use this opportunity to call on the Federal Government to initiate moves that will culminate in financial as well as administrative independence for SIECs and genuine local government autonomy. Without these, local government elections will be mere hollow rituals and the LGAs will remain unproductive and useless administrative structures.