Introduction
Nigeria is a federation embedded in a three-tier structure of governance vis, the federal, state and local governments. The grundnorm being the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended (Constitution) in Schedule 1 Part 1 listed the 36 states and the local governments that make them up. The Constitution in S.7(1) made provisions for a democratically elected local government system: “(1) The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this Constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the Government of every State shall, subject to section 8 of this Constitution, ensure their existence under a Law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.” States were given power under S.197
(1) (b) of the Constitution, through the State Independent Electoral Commission to organize free, fair and credible local government elections.
The Constitution in affirming its supremacy in S.1 stated that:” (1) This Constitution is
supreme and its provisions shall have binding force on all authorities and persons
throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
(2) The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not
be governed, nor shall any persons or group of persons take control of the Government
of Nigeria or any part thereof, except in accordance with the provisions of this
Constitution”.
Furthermore, the Constitution made provisions for revenue sharing and allocation
between the three tiers of government. For local governments, it specifically stated in
S.162 headed the “Distributable Pool Account” that:
“(5) The amount standing to the credit of local government councils in the Federation Account shall also be allocated to the States for the benefit of their local government councils on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly. (6) Each State shall maintain a special account to be called “the State Joint Local Government Account” into which shall be paid all allocations to the local government councils of the State from the Federation Account and from the Government of the State.
(7) Each State shall pay to local government councils in its area of jurisdiction such proportion of its total revenue on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly”.
Furthermore subsection 8 states: “(8) The amount standing to the credit of local government councils of a State shall be distributed among the local government councils of that State on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly of the State”.
The functions of local governments were stated in Schedule 4 of the Constitution. Most
relevant for our discourse are the functions related to the provision and maintenance of
primary, adult and vocational education; the development of agriculture and natural
resources, other than the exploitation of minerals; the provision and maintenance of
health services (primary health care); provision and maintenance of public conveniences,
sewage and refuse disposal, as well as participation in economic development and
planning with the state in relation to its geographical area.
Context
State governments seized the initiative of the constitutional provisions especially S.7 of
the Constitution empowering them to ensure the existence of local government councils
under a Law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and
functions of such councils. The seizure involved several abuses and denigration of
constitutional provisions including the enactment of state level laws and policies that allow
them to dismiss duly elected local government chairpersons and councilors at will, setting
up caretaker committees and appointing sole administrators for local governments
instead of elected representatives of the people, withholding local government funds after
same have been paid into the joint account from the federation account, usurping the
functions and duties of local governments, etc. Even when local council elections are
purportedly held, they lack credibility and cannot be described as free and fair.
It is against this background that the Federal Attorney General sued the 36 states of the
federation complaining about these infractions (with the exception of the credibility of local
government elections).
The Gender Dimension
Local governance is about grassroots governance and their functions in basic education,
vocational education, primary healthcare, access to water and sanitation and agriculture
makes them most relevant to women and girls. There are about 20million out of school children and the majority are girls; literacy rate for women is 42.5% compared to the
55.2% literacy rate for men. These two negative indicators fall squarely within the education functions of local governments. In health, Nigeria’s maternal mortality stands at 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births compared to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) maternal mortality ratio target of less than 70 per 100,000 live births; infant and child mortality rates are 63 deaths per 1,000 live births and 42 deaths per 1,000 live births respectively. These two negative indicators fall squarely into the health functions of local governments. While access to water and sanitation have been improving over the years, it has not reached a critical tipping point for an assertion that WASH, as environmental factors most frequently associated with disease conditions in epidemiological analysis have started reducing the disease burden. Recent outbreaks of cholera across the country in 2024 is a pointer in this direction.
Agriculture is mostly practiced in the rural areas under local governments. Specifically, the National Gender Policy in Agriculture states that women carry out about 80% of agricultural production, 60% of agricultural processing activities and 50% of animal husbandry and related activities, yet women have access to less than 20% of agricultural assets. Furthermore, 26.5 million people across the country are currently facing acute hunger and food inflation is at an all-time high. A critical part of the agriculture and food challenge have arisen from the strangulation of local governments by states, thereby rendering them incapable of playing a key role in improving agriculture productivity across its value chains or even in mobilizing citizens against insecurity.
Essentially, while the strangulation of local governments by states appears gender neutral, there is sufficient evidence to affirm that women and girls suffered most from this unconstitutional position. This is based on the fact that duties of local governments relate to a great extent to the fundamentals of the rights, livelihoods and dignity of women and girls. This position is contextualized against the constitutional non-discrimination clause in S.42 and the state obligation for affirmative action found in article 4 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The population of Nigeria is estimated at about 228 million in 2024, disaggregated into 50.6% male and 49.4% female. However, for decision makers at the level of governors, there is no female governor in Nigeria while female legislators at the state level are less than 5% of all state assemblies. Thus, while decision making on local government affairs leading to the current challenges is a club for men, the negative impacts is felt more by women and girls.
The Supreme Court Decision
The gravamen of the decision is an affirmation of the spirit of the Constitution and this declares local governments by caretakers and sole administrators illegal; declares the withholding of local government funds by states illegal, mandates direct allocation of federation account funds to local governments as a panacea to the withholding of the funds; affirms that only democratically elected local government councils are entitled to the proceeds of the federation account allocation. However, the Supreme Court has been accused of subverting the constitution by failing to uphold the joint account and give S.162 (6) its literal meaning. But that will be the subject of discourse for another paper.
The Gender Advancement Opportunities
While acknowledging that it is not yet uhuru for grassroots men and women, especially in
consideration that the votes may not count in local government elections if State Independent Electoral Commissions are allowed to manipulate elections in favour of the ruling party, there are openings for improvement of participation and voice, rights andlivelihood enhancement at the grassroots. These opportunities include the following.
The first is that of organizing and mobilising women, men, girls and boys at the local level for free and credible elections through voter and political education. It will be easier for local groups to choose and ensure the emergence of good women and men known in the communities for positions of chairperson and councilor of local governments. This will also include the opportunity to change and vote out non performing elected officials. Defining the agenda for governance including budget priorities at the grassroots and creating opportunities for engagement with elected councilors will be easier and straight forward. It is expected that women’s groups will become more active and have a voice in primary health care, basic education, WASH and rural livelihoods. There will be more opportunities to discuss the improvement of agriculture and its value chains at the local government level.
When local governments have more control over their budgets, this will translate to increased funds to address issues that affect women and girls such as access to maternal, sexual and reproductive health products and services in the primary health care, more programmes that promote girl-child education, adult literacy for women and vocational skills to boost female entrepreneurship and programs that combats gender based violence and lead to financial independence. Capital budget implementation at local government level involves opportunities for the grassroots to participate in public procurement. This is expected to improve value for money, promote local entrepreneurship and enhance the rural economy. The accountability dimension is based on the grassroots nature of local governance. Mobilising for accountability in education and health will lead to a process of improving the indicators and reversing the race to the bottom.
Conclusion
Civil society organisations will need to play a critical role in capacity building, mobilization, voter and political education at the grassroots for these benefits to accrue. Opposition political parties can change the narrative through intense engagements and campaigns
reflecting local priorities to ensure they get seats at the local level as the foundation for the process of growth into bigger parties that win seats at the state and federal levels.
