The Action Congress of Nigeria has advised President Goodluck Jonathan to jettison his proposed constitutional amendment aimed at scrapping the existing States/Local Government Joint Accounts.

The party argued in a statement on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that scrapping the accounts and allocating the LGs’ share of the Federation Account directly to them would amount to making the councils federating units.

It warned that allowing the councils to wear the toga of federating units could stifle development and deal a further blow to the nation’s wobbling federalism.

The ACN said the argument that deductions from the council funds by the states had led to a lack of development at the grass roots did not warrant an amendment to the constitution that would fundamentally alter the nation’s federalism in the negative sense.

The answer for the lack of development at the grass roots, according to the ACN, is not to allocate funds directly to the LGs but to publish, as it is being done already, whatever is allocated to them.

It added that relevant government agencies should also be made to be on the alert in order to monitor the disbursement of funds from the States/LG.

The party said allocating money directly to council chairmen would not translate into more development, as they (chairmen) would be subjected to pressure from local or grass roots leaders, who don’t have such access to state governors.

Commenting further on the amendment being proposed by the President, the ACN said under the 1999 constitution, the federal and state governments were the federating units, while LGs were mere administrative units of the states.
.
.
.

The party argued in a statement on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that scrapping the accounts and allocating the LGs’ share of the Federation Account directly to them would amount to making the councils federating units.

ekt_bear:

I don't agree with the ACN on this one.

ekt_bear:

^-- I sort of get the ACNs POV. I guess right now, states often appropriate LG funds for their own purposes.

What is the formula now, roughly 50% FG, 30% states, 20% LG? So I suppose that from the perspective of a governor, you want to shrink the FG share but also maintain your hold of the LG share.

BTW, ACN isn't the only one saying this. The governors are saying something similar, if I remember correctly.

9jaganja:

I would expect ACN to be a party of intellectuals and not just repeat what state govs are saying. They pointed out to the 1999 constitution; a constitution that has proven chaotic for growth in terms of "revenue allocation" federal character" all that jazz,   I can't believe ACN is saying anything of seriously!!, 

They didn't have to repeat what the GOVs said. Being an opposition isn't what they are doing' I think they are sipping hatorade lool

ekt_bear:

It has nothing to do with repeating what the governors are saying. Look, there is a legitimate argument to be made here. Doing this certainly weakens the states relative to the FG, right? And maybe for them, they believe that the states are the basic unit in this federation, and that weakening 'em harms the system.

Which if you think about it makes sense. Why is it the constitution that determines how many LGs a state has? Why can't a state create as many as it likes? Does the US constitution specify the existence of counties in each state? Nope, this is something the states take care of themselves.

The more I think about it, the more I see where Lai Mohammed is coming from. I don't necessarily agree with him (at least for now), but I can at least see why his POV might make some sense.

ekt_bear:

It has nothing to do with repeating what the governors are saying. Look, there is a legitimate argument to be made here. Doing this certainly weakens the states relative to the FG, right? And maybe for them, they believe that the states are the basic unit in this federation, and that weakening 'em harms the system.

Which if you think about it makes sense. Why is it the constitution that determines how many LGs a state has? Why can't a state create as many as it likes? Does the US constitution specify the existence of counties in each state? Nope, this is something the states take care of themselves.

The more I think about it, the more I see where Lai Mohammed is coming from. I don't necessarily agree with him (at least for now), but I can at least see why his POV might make some sense.

Commenting further on the amendment being proposed by the president, the ACN said under the current constitution, the Federal and State Governments are the federating units, while LGCs are mere administrative units of state at the local levels.

”Making LGCs federating units (as being proposed by the Constitutional Amendment) will further strengthen the Federal Government and weaken all other units, thereby pushing Nigeria towards centralisation or unitary governance. As things are today, Nigeria’s inability to develop at the desired pace is due to over-centralisation brought about by the extended era of military rule,” it said.

ACN also warned that the proposed constitutional amendment would defeat the essence of federalism, which assumes relative autonomy and coordinate status among federating units, adding: ”With almost 800 states and local governments associating with one Federal Government, the characteristics of federalism will be lost.”

Listing other setbacks that can be wrought by the proposed constitutional amendment, it said power sharing among three tiers of government (instead of two) would introduce unnecessary confusion in the legislative, executive and judicial spheres, and precipitate jurisdictional conflicts, especially at the state and local government levels, which will inevitably lead to poor service delivery.

”While it is easy to distinguish functions that are usually left for states from those that should be implemented in common with the centre (like defence, international relations, currency, citizenship, aviation, customs, immigration), it would be very difficult to neatly sub-divide existing state functions between states on the one hand and local government councils on the other.

”For instance, the experiment of leaving primary education and primary health care to local governments while the states manage the rest has failed because these sectors must be administered holistically if they are ever to be efficient. Needless to say that making LGCs autonomous federating units not subject to state control will make it impossible to coordinate developmental efforts within the states, thus leading to disastrous consequences,” ACN said.

The party said while periodic constitutional amendments are desirable, such amendments must serve the interest of the nation and its people, instead of worsening a bad situation or achieving only cosmetic change.

”When placed side by side with the president’s single-tenure push through a constitutional amendment, it will seem that the president is embarking on the push for amendment just for amendment sake, instead of the impact it will have on the polity.

”If the president is so keen to champion constitutional amendments, we urge him to look at the kind of amendments that will make our elections more transparent, that will enhance national development by scrapping age-old anti-investment laws like the Railways Act and the like,” ACN said.