APPARENTLY in a move backing the Federal Government’s bid to wrest the control of local government councils from state governors, the Senate recently introduced a bill to establish an electoral umpire for council polls. The bill, which has already been read for the first time on the floor of the Red Chamber, is being sponsored by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa (APC, Niger-East). Titled the “National Independent Local Government Election Commission (NILGEC) (Establishment) Bill, 2024,” the bill came on the heels of the recent judgment of the Supreme Court granting the 774 local government councils in the country financial autonomy. Predictably, it is facing a groundwell of opposition from political parties, rights groups and sociocultural organisations.
Among other organisations, the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) have raised concern over the bill, warning that it grossly violates the principles of federalism. The bill seeks to establish a commission with the mandate to organise, oversee and conduct elections for the offices of local government chairmen and councilors in all the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). When established, the commission will also set and enforce electoral guidelines and regulations for local government elections, monitor and supervise all electoral activities and processes, recruit and train electoral officers and staff for efficient election management, and investigate and adjudicate electoral disputes and grievances.
To say the very least, the NILGE bill is an outrageous piece of legislation that points to utter confusion in the national legislature. It is egregious that in the face of the grave challenges facing the country, fuelled in large part by the undue centralisation of affairs under military rule, the Senate is thinking of solidifying the same centralisation and making the country essentially a basket case. At the moment, there are existing State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECS) and if their performance is the issue, what guarantee is there that whatever new contraption is created will be fit for purpose? Why create a new bureaucracy amidst financial crisis? Indeed, is creating a new agency the way to address lapses in existing agencies?
It cannot be cheering news that rather than subjecting propositions by the executive arm of government to scrunity, the National Assembly has become essentially an outpost, if not a handmaiden, of the Bola Tinubu administration. Purveying crude arguments, it enabled the foisting of a new national anthem on Nigerians at a time workers were calling for a new minimum wage as a result of their deep immiseration following the Tinubu administration’s precipitate removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and floatation of the naira. Against wise counsel, the National Assembly gave speedy approval to the Tinubu government’s proposal to create a completely tenuous ministry, namely the Ministry of Livestock Development, essentially balkanizing the Agriculture Ministry and imposing a new bureaucracy on government finances while mouthing the need to implement the Oronsaye report, which advocated drastic reduction in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the government. The implication, crude in every purport, is that if new problems crop up in the MDAs, the government will create new ministries to address them.
Just so we are clear, there is a real case to be made against the performances of SIECS. Almost in all cases, they award 100 percent victory to the ruling party, with the opposition winning virtually nothing. Local government elections are massively rigged. That is why civil society, state assemblies and other critical organs need to address this issue. It is a fact that a great chunk of the malpractice that goes on during local government elections are rooted in the failure of the security agencies monitoring the elections to be fair and impartial. However, these are systemic issues that can be addressed through the instrumentality of the law, and with heightened participation and vigilance of the electorate. Just as there are concerns about SIECS, there are equally grave concerns about the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the federal election body, so do you abrogate INEC to address these concerns? Why not work towards institutional mechanisms to ensure that all electoral commissions in the country step up their game?
The proposal to establish NILGEC is not only anomalous, it shows the utter unseriousness pervading the activities of legislators in Nigeria. Just how is the issue of the conduct of elections at the local government level the concern of the Senate even where the constitution emphatically assigns such duty to SIECS? Is the bill meant to amend the relevant provisions of the Constitution, or what exactly is its intent? How can the complaints about SIECS be tackled through the unconstitutional establishment of a federal agency to supervise local elections? What is the guarantee that a federal body won’t generate the complaints weaponised to eliminate SIECS? It is sad that increasingly, discussions at the Senate are hardly nuanced.
The senators should call themselves to order and not continue to act without regard to the clear and unambiguous stipulations and provisions of the law. Their actions clearly portray them as unserious and lacking a direction. Gross!
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