In Anambra State today, it is no longer news that the third tier of government has been totally extinguished by the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) since it came to power in 2006, save for a brief half-hearted installation of its members in 2014 as Chairpersons across the 21 local government areas of Anambra State.
For the past 10 years, Anambra State is the only state in the South East that has been running its local government councils with Caretaker/Transition Committees appointed by the Governor. Members of the these caretaker or transition committees are always card-carrying members of the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) appointed by the State Governor and changed at will to guarantee they do the bidding of the Governor.
The lame excuse usually given by successive APGA-led administrations for their inability to conduct local government elections is the existence of a bogus restraining order preventing the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) from conducting a local government election in the state. Only APGA are in possession of this invisible court order it seems. One would imagine if the Soludo government would have been possible if INEC failed to conduct governorship elections because of a phantom restraining order.
Despite repeated promises to constitute the Board of ANSIEC to carry out their statutory functions, 20 months after assumption of office, Governor Soludo has continued to use APGA members to illegally run the 21 local government areas in the state under the alien title of Transitional Council in contravention of Section 7 of the Constitution, which guarantees the system of local government by democratically elected officials across Nigeria. This is an impeachable offence!
The direct consequence of the emasculation of the local government system in Anambra State under Governor Charles Soludo is the total confiscation by the governor of the statutory local government FAAC allocation accruing to the 21 LGAs in Anambra, which are paid into the State Joint Local Government Account maintained by the state government in line with Section 162(6) of the 1999 Constitution.
Ordinarily, there should be a State Joint Local Government Account Allocation Committee, which distributes to the local government councils in the state their share of the revenue in the joint account. This is pursuant to Section 162 subsections 7 and 8 of the 1999 Constitution. In Anambra State today however, Governor Charles Soludo has blatantly disregarded these mandatory provisions of the Constitution.
It is on record according to data from FAAC that between January to August 2023, Governor Charles Soludo received the sum of N41.2 billion into the State Joint Local Government Account on behalf of the 21 LGAs in the State. However, the Governor has seized this sum and gives out peanuts as imprest to his appointed stooges in the 21 LGAs. In 2022, the state government received more than N53 billion also on behalf of the 21 local government areas in Anambra State.
Till this moment, there is no publicly available record of how these funds were disbursed by the Soludo administration to the LGAs anywhere. The 2023 quarterly budget performance reports released by the Accountant-General of the State, Sir Chukwudi Okoli is very silent on the utilisation of N41.2 billion that has so far accrued to the 21 LGAs between January 2023 and August 2023, which the state government seized as parts of its recurrent revenue.
This opaque and grossly non-transparent handling of the LGA FAAC allocations by the Soludo administration leaves room for possible wanton looting of the collective resources of ndi Anambra by the Soludo administration and deprives the local government areas, which are the closest to the grassroot of much needed funds to carry out their constitutional duties of bringing development to the people.
It is now commonplace to see the Anambra state government under APGA attempting to carry out the functions of LGAs. The Soludo administration and previous APGA governments have also encroached into the constitutional exclusive sources of revenue for the local government councils such as collection of building rates, park and market levies etc. These statutory means of generating internal revenue for the LGAs have been taken over by the Soludo administration too.
It is time for Ndi Anambra to rise up and start demanding accountability, transparency and total obedience to the rule of law. The era of docility is well behind us. The Anambra State Governor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, who prides himself as a renown Economist and democrat must be called upon to walk his talk and provide a detailed account of the N41.2B that has accrued to the 21 LGAs between January to August was spent or probably looted. Equally a detailed account of over N53 billion LGA allocations for 2022 must be provided to ndi Anambra.
Most importantly, the Governor must immediately obey Section 7 of Nigeria’s Constitution by ensuring that ANSIEC immediately puts modalities in place to conduct local government elections in Anambra State so as to bequeath the third tier of government its constitutional elected Chairpersons and Councillors. Soludo must be made to understand that conducting a local government election in Anambra State is not a favour to ndi Anambra but an obligation he must uphold.
The new APC in Anambra State will make sure this is pursued to a logical conclusion. Anambra State cannot afford to remain a political monarchy where the APGA-led government does whatever it desires without any reasonable pushback. Transparency and accountability are the bedrock of good governance. Governor Soludo owes ndi Anambra this double obligation. A great Anambra must emerge in this decade!
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