Why LG Councillors Under-perform – Experts

Political analysts have proffered reasons for the consistent under performance of local government councilors in Nigeria.

Analysts who spoke to THE WHISTLER see retrogression in the performance of councillors and conclude they are gradually becoming appendages to the system.

Their seeming docility makes local government administration lack vibes as hardly do their constituents hear any quality debates at chambers.

In view of Chief James Ugwu, former chairman of Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State, as well as ex-commissioner in Enugu State Local Government Service Commission, the law that establishes the local government system recognises the relevance of councillors, but the problem is implementation.

Chief Ugwu said, “For instance, councillors are empowered to impeach local government chairmen, but what can they do when most of them are selected, at times by council chairmen themselves? People who complain about presidential system of government are right because it appears that we are not matured for the system. Before 2019, we thought that the Electoral Law would have been signed into law, which would have ushered in electronic voting.”

He however disagreed with proponents of constituency projects for councillors. For him, “They want to design a conduit pipe so that allocations would be coming to them directly. Rather, councillors should present the needs of their people at chambers. Such will undergo debate and passage, as the case may be.”

For Dr Ahmed Saleh, national president of the National Coalition for Peace and Mobilisation, NACOPEAM, functional councillors are key to sustainable democracy. According to him, “But they must have some elements of freehand; their chairmen should not subdue them. They should also be acceptable to their wards. They can also engender themselves to them by being responsive. They should initiate programmes to champion peace and security in their various wards. They are not executives, but with creativity, they can achieve a lot. They can help negotiate land acquisition for willing farmers, and also champion community development funds. This underscores the need to elect councillors with administrative acumen.”

Hon Hillary Onah, a commentator, blamed the failure of councillors on their academic and administrative deficiencies. Onah said, “The system is poor. Some councillors receive around N90k monthly with the responsibility of taking care of their families and some daily ward obligations. Some of them seem miserable after living office because of their belief that politics is a permanent job, and fail to plan for the future. It is unfortunate because with their allowances and salaries, amounting to about N200k monthly, they could save no matter how small. I urge government to make councillors see their jobs as a way of building themselves. Government can earmark some funds to train them on small scale businesses and give them grants to begin businesses after leaving office. It is true they receive wardrobe and other allowances, but some chairmen don’t pay them in bulk; some remain unpaid until they leave office. A fundamental issue is that some councillors emerge as compensation for stakeholders, not minding their administrative capacities.”

A political scientist, Osmond Onuh, hinged the inefficiency of councillors on god-fatherism. He opines that, “From time immemorial, councillors are viewed as appendages to a repressive government because they served as warrant officers. Their weakness is now more compounded due to the nature of the modern day politics which is centred on godfatherism. They hardly take any decisions or legislation that is contrary to the wishes of their godfathers. Again, many of them lack the rudimentary knowledge of lawmaking. Hence, budgets of local governments are most often passed at the chairman’s backyard.

“Most of them lack the effrontery and temerity to hold their opinions for fear of victimization. Many who tried to go contrary to chairmen’s wishes are usually tamed. Most often, legislative business is carried out at the chairman’s residence. Because they are not directly elected by their constituencies, they don’t attract any project to their community and at the end of their tenure, they’re almost ostracised by their wards for under-achievement.”

As a way out, Onuh said council polls should be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), explaining that last credible council polls in Nigeria were conducted on 5th December, 1998 by INEC which ushered in the Fourth Republic. In his view, “Since state electoral commissions took over the conduct of council polls, the exercise had become charades. I call on constituents to protest or occupy their local government any time an unpopular candidate is imposed them.”

An elder statesman and former councillor, Hon Clement Odo, stated that, “It’s a turnaround. During our time, councillors were the eyes of chairmen at the grassroots. Today, such has been assigned to supervisors. Winning then was in the hands of the people. People through votes determine who represent them well. And you dare not fail them. Not now that it’s by selection. That’s why their performance value is below expectations.”

Ex-councillor Hon Benji Ogbonna said unless there is an electoral reform in the country, councillors would remain docile. Hear him, “The people in the wards should be given the opportunity to elect their councillors, not by appointment by few. That’s why councillors of the past years are more vibrant. Then a duly elected councillor would have the mandate of his people and use it to claim all their rights in the local government. During our time, there was more vibrancy because winning then was in the hands of the people. However, to make them more relevant, I call for provisions for constituency projects like the National Assembly. Some council chairmen are not fair to councillors. Most of them run their government like sole administrators.”