WHO REALLY NEEDS THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM APART FROM THE STAFF? - By Adiele Nwachukwu

All over the world, local or city governments are structured in certain ways and perform certain known tasks. In a functioning local government system. The Council is the legislative arm headed by the Leader. The Chairman is the chief executive officer that implements the edicts or ordinances passed by the Council.

 

Generally, local governments perform certain identified functions; among other functions, they are responsible for maintaining city roads, removing garbage (often through contracted private refuse removers), sewage, and utilities such as water, fire services. They may also have public health departments where they provide all citizens with certain medical services (such as immunizations).

Local governments generally have dump sites where garbage is dumped and from which some garbage is recycled. I bet you that many Nigerian local governments do not have dump sites for garbage and sewage!

To meet their responsibilities Councils, have annual or biannual budgets. They annually look at their revenue stream, know how much they generate (usually through licenses, parking fees, ticket of traffic offenders’ fees, sales taxes, property taxes and moneys they obtain from their central revenue sharing).

Each Council knows how much revenue it generates during a typical fiscal year and divides it up; that is, allocates a certain portion of it to each city department to use in performing its assigned functions.

The supervisor or director of each Council department makes sure that monies assigned to his department are used for their intended purposes.The local government accounting department and auditor look over each department’s books to make sure that all monies are spent as assigned and if a penny is stolen someone loses his job or goes to jail. 

Each department does what it exists to do; the council monitors each department (through monthly over view of its financials) to make sure that it does what it is set up to accomplish for the people in the local government.

    

In this light, one is forced to ask whether local or city government still exist in Nigeria. Are there councils, Chairmen and departments responsible for performing local government functions. If it does have a government how come it is not performing its functions? 

To answer above questions, you are told that the local governments do not have independent means of generating revenue, that it does not have money to perform its functions. And you ask why? The answer is that they merely wait for the State governors to go to Abuja and get some money from Abuja and then give some of that money to local governments in the State to perform their functions. Further you will be told that the governor, by and large, steal such monies.

This is to agree that the rulers at the local governments cannot figure out independent ways to generate monies to run their local government but instead wait for a faraway government at Abuja to give them the monies to do so?

What this amounts to is that the rulers at the local government level are not human beings! If they are, they would have studied the functions of local governments and cities elsewhere to know how cities generate revenues for performing their functions. 

All over the world cities generate revenue from sales taxes, property taxes, Licenses and so on? If so how come the local governments in Nigeria have not appraised all properties in their domain and tax them. How come local governments do not have sales taxes on goods and services within, hotels and restaurants included).

     

How come local governments do not generate internal revenue and use it to supplement whatever they obtain from Abuja and their States to perform their necessary services?

All over the world, City and local governments are structured in certain ways and perform certain known tasks. But here in Nigeria, we have a local government system that does not see itself as a tier of governance. The workers see system as not only a place to earn a living but to also make wealth. Primarily, it is essentially a source of wealth for those who run it. Nothing about governance exist at that level, no wonder the people have lost every confidence in its existence. 

Governments are necessary for running human polities. Governments obtain their monies mostly from taxing the people. As long as we need governments we must pay for them. Thus, taxes, change and death are the only things predictable in our lives.

How do we expect to run governments; do we expect money to drop down from heaven?  Someone needs to show our people why they need governments and how governments generate their revenues.

We seek money to become individually wealthy. We build fancy houses but will not pay taxes with which the road in front of their houses are maintained. We do not think in terms of public and social good but only in terms of private good.

This attitude is compounded by the same behaviour by both the politicians and civil servants that run our local governments, who assume that the revenues of the Councils is meant to take care of their welfare. Hence, whenever the federal allocation is received it is spent to the last kobo to take care of those who run the system on behalf of the people. Fictitious projects and direct labour are used to siphon the funds. In worst scenarios, salary vouchers are inflated to steal whatever resources that are available.  

The Chairmen have over the years become mere morons who are used by the HPMs and Treasurers to feather their nest. Under their very watch the commonwealth of the local people is shared, with nothing to show as benefit to the people. In such circumstance and experience, it is difficult to convince the people to pay taxes and rates. 

The question is: who really needs the local government system apart from the staff?