Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Gagbemi, has called for the scrapping of the State Electoral Commissions to allow democracy to take its roots in the local governments.
He made this call at a one-day ‘Discourse on National Nigeria’s Security Challenges and Good Governance at the Local Government Levels” in Abuja on Monday, describing it as the main impediment to the development of local governments.
The programme with the Theme: ‘Nigeria’s Security Challenges and Good Governance at The Local Government Levels’ was organized by the House of Representatives.
The AGF said governors have latched on to the inadequacies and lacunas in some sections of the 1999 Constitution to undermine and render local governments redundant.
He also accused governors of exploiting the weaknesses of Section 7(1); Section 83(3); Section 7(5) and others to impose their will on the local governments in the country.
Fagbemi noted that these inadequacies have allowed the governors to abuse the rights of local governments and in turn, deprive people at the grassroots to feel their presence.
According to him, the most prominent abuse of local government was the use of state electoral commissions to impose leaders at the local government levels through sham elections while most Governors only appoint caretaker leadership in their local governments.
He further noted that the abuse of State/ local governments’ joint accounts by state governors has imposed a fiscal emasculation which has rendered the local governments poor as the governors hold on to their federal allocations.
He also called for a robust constitutional amendment that would remove all encumbrances hindering the development of local governments and their ability to fulfil their constitutionally recognized functions.
He said, “To achieve this, many experts have proposed that there is a need for the scrapping of the state independent electoral commission. Their functions and powers should be transferred to the independent national electoral commission because the state independent electoral commission remains an appendage to every incumbent governor. This is perceived as the root cause of the problem of local government administration in Nigeria.”
