Many state governments have not been allowing their State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) to conduct local government elections as at when due, as they have been settling for caretaker committees. Even when elections are conducted, it is usually a mere formality, as the party in power in each state always clears the available positions. SUNNY NWANKWO (Umuahia), BASSEY ANTHONY (Uyo), NWANOSIKE ONU (Awka), SIMON UTEBOR (Yenagoa), NSA GILL (Calabar), OKUNGBOWA AIWERIE (Asaba), AHMED RUFA’I (Dutse), KOLADE ADEYEMI (Jos), TOBA ADEDEJI (Osogbo), OSAGIE OTABOR (Akure), BISI OLADELE, YINKA ADENIRAN (Ibadan), LINUS OOTA, (Lafia), BISI OLANIYI (Benin City), RASAQ IBRAHIM (Ado-Ekiti), ABDUGAFAR ALABELEWE (Kaduna), ADEKUNLE JIMOH (Ilorin), MIKE ODIEGWU, ROSEMARY NWISI (Port Harcourt) and DUKU JOEL (Damaturu) give a picture of the situation in their respective states
The recent Supreme Court judgment over the disagreement between Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde and sacked local government chairmen and councilors in the state could be regarded as a victory for democracy at the grassroots. But, the situation in other parts of the country suggests that the position held by the Oyo State Government is not an isolated one.
Abia:
Since the return of democracy in 1999, Abia State under the administrations of Orji Uzor Kalu and Theodore Orji ran the 17 local government areas with Transition Committee (TC) chairmen. This has received wide condemnation by critics of the governors.
Under Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, however, the state has held local government elections twice: December 17, 2016 and December 18, 2020. As it has been the trend elsewhere
in the country, the PDP won the entire seats.
A political analyst, Gilbert Chijioke, said using transition committees has become fashionable among the governors because some of them now see it as a way of subverting the constitution. He said: “It is in the state that we once heard that someone got the position of a local government chairman just by singing during party gatherings. Still in this state, we heard that allocations were shared by balloting. Is that not abuse of the constitution?
“How many of the TC chairmen are not in one way or the other related to the governor or the party chairman? The governors have the powers to determine who becomes the TC chairman. Because they (governors) have the powers to determine who gets what at the end of the month, they will prefer to use TC chairmen to run the affairs of the local governments than elected chairmen.
“Apart from the Isiala Ngwa South LGA chairman, Ikechukwu Anyatonwu, tell me who else that made an impact while in power? Some see it as empowerment and a means of settlement by the governor and therefore, are accountable to the governor and not the people as it should have been.”
Akwa Ibom:
Akwa Ibom State conducted its last local government election on November 2, 2020 and expectedly, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) won in all the 31 councils and 368 wards. Constitutionally, the tenure of local council administration in Nigeria, including Akwa Ibom lasts for three years. Going by this, the council chairmen and councillors would complete their time in office by November 2022.
However, local government has an unpleasant trajectory of failures, disappointments and lack of impact on the grassroots. The sad reality is that local government councils only exist by name, as they cannot perform basic constitutional responsibilities contained in the Residual List.
Many believe the local government councils are incapacitated by lack of adequate funds because federal allocations meant for the running of the grassroots have either been seized or tampered with by the state government in the name of joint account.
In Akwa Ibom, there have been hushed complaints that the executive arm of government has been denying local governments their allocations. To worsen matters, the House of Assembly and the State Chapter of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) have not officially come out to kick against the financial arm-twisting of the councils.
In fact, proponents of financial autonomy for local governments have said that the challenges faced by the local government system are caused by council chairmen and the State House of Assembly who openly rejected financial autonomy and preferred to be subservient to the governor.
Last year, the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly, voted against local government autonomy.
Anambra:
The controversy trailing the conduct of local government elections in Anambra State has continued, despite the recent Supreme Court judgement. The last time local council polls were conducted in Anambra State was during the twilight of the Peter Obi administration and it was hurriedly done to fulfil all righteousness.
Under normal circumstances, the next election would have been in 2016, but Obi’s successor, Governor Willie Obiano, has been operating the councils through the caretaker committees.
The opposition parties have been calling on the governor to organise such an election to give the grassroots a voice. But, the government has insisted that it would be prejudicial for the state to talk about that because they are still waiting for Supreme Court judgment on the matter in court.
PDP Publicity Secretary, Nnamdi Nwangwu said the non-conduct of local government poll is one of the reasons for the increasing criminal activities in the state. His All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart, Okelo Madukaife, said the government is insensitive to the plight of the masses.
A group, Recover Nigeria Project (RNP), has threatened that if Obiano fails to do the needful, the state should forget the November 6 governorship election. Its convener, Comrade Osita Obi, gave the warning in a letter addressed to the State Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the state government.
Bayelsa:
The last local government election in Bayelsa State was held on August 10, 2019; about three weeks to the September 3, 2019 primary of the PDP. Before then, the eight local governments in the state were administered by caretaker committees appointed by former Governor Seriake Dickson.
The main opposition party, the APC, boycotted the August 10, 2019 polls, citing lack of confidence in the composition of the state electoral body as reason.
As expected, the PDP won all the chairmanship and councillorship seats. The election, it was believed at the time, was a masterstroke for Dickson to rig out former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Chief Ndutimi Alaibe, who was perceived as a strong contender for the party’s governorship ticket.
With the PDP winning all the council seats, the elected chairmen and councillors became automatic delegates for the PDP primary. The development facilitated the emergence of Senator Douye Diri, now governor, as the party’s candidate.
Local governments in Bayelsa, like others across the country, are confronted with paucity of funds to carry out their obligatory duties to the people at the grassroots.
Cross River:
The last local government election in Cross River State was conducted on May 30, 2020, and the elected 18 local councils’ chairmen with their deputies were sworn in two days after.
However, there are fears that the next election, which would be due by May 30, 2023, may not hold. Governor Ben Ayade will be concluding his second term in office on May 29, 2023, and his successor would be sworn in. Intrigues will likely play out between the outgoing governor and the incoming one, as it happened before between former Governor Liyel Imoke who took over from Donald Duke. Imoke kept a timetable, but he ensured that those who were perceived loyalists of Duke were blocked.
Ayade inherited elected council officials whose tenure expired on January 2017. Afterwards, he settled for the caretaker committees to run the councils from January 2017 till June 2020 when the current elected officials were inaugurated.
Though there are elected officials in place, the state government has been having an overbearing control over the council funds; deciding how much they get from the federal allocation that comes monthly. For instance, some local councils receive as much as N150 million monthly from federal allocation, but eventually get as little as N5 million monthly.
Funding of the councils is at the mercy and pleasure of the governor. He decides which month funds are given to councils and how much is given. The new NFIU guidelines on fiscal autonomy for local government councils have been circumvented.
The State and Local Government Joint Account is backed by a State Law and is managed in a manner that; as the allocations come in from the Federal Government for councils, there are ready state laws that take away funds as first line charge with percentages for different heads amounting to about 40 per cent. For instance, there is a percentage for primary health care. There is a percentage for primary education; a percentage for joint security etc.
The remaining amount is usually lodged in a joint account that cannot be touched by the council chairmen.
Delta:
Delta State is not an exception. The much anticipated Delta State council polls, which held on March 6, 2021, ended in an anti-climax with the withdrawal of the main opposition party, APC midway into the election. With this withdrawal, the PDP made a clean sweep of all the available seats in the 25 local councils.
APC Caretaker Publicity Secretary, Sylvester Imonina alleged that there were irregularities because members of his party were harassed and arrested by security operatives. Imonina said the state electoral body refused to allow representatives of the APC to take a record of the electoral materials distributed to the 25 local councils.
The 25 chairmen and their deputies have been sworn in by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on March 10. The three-year tenure of the newly-sworn in chairmen would terminate in 2024.
The major challenge facing local government administration, according to the immediate past chairman of Oshimili South, Uche Osadebe, is not funding, but the pressure by party leaders for patronage. He accused the PDP leaders in Oshimili South of diverting public funds from revenue sources into their personal accounts.
For Osadebe, unless the issue of local government autonomy is addressed, impactful projects will be a mirage. He advocated for an amendment of the constitution to guarantee the autonomy of local government councils.
Edo:
Edo State last held local government elections on March 3, 2018. The elected 18 chairmen and 192 councillors were inaugurated on March 5, 2018, for a three-year tenure, which expired on March 5, 2021.
All the 18 chairmen were elected on the platform of the then governing APC, but with the June 19, 2020 defection of Governor Godwin Obaseki from the APC to the PDP, ahead of the September 19, 2020 governorship election, most of the council chairmen and councillors were intimidated and forced to defect with Obaseki to the PDP, with some of them refusing, till the expiration of their tenure.
Since the expiration of their tenure on March 5, the heads of local government administration have been in charge of the affairs. Obaseki is not in a hurry to conduct another local council election.
Ekiti:
Ekiti State is among the few states where local government elections are held every two years. The last poll was held on December 7, 2019 where the current 16 council chairmen and 177 councillors were elected.
During the 2019 election, no fewer than 14 parties had their name appeared on the ballot paper for the election, but four eventually fielded candidates, including the ruling APC and the opposition PDP. At the end, APC candidates were declared winners of the 16 chairmanship seats and 177 councillorship positions by the state electoral commission chairman, Justice Jide Aladejana; a result which the opposition PDP rejected.
The next local government election is scheduled for December this year. Although the state electoral body has not released the timetable for the poll, the two major parties have been expressing their readiness for the contest, through subtle campaigns in different localities. The local government election is expected to be a dress rehearsal for next year’s governorship contest in the state.
Ekiti State President of Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Oluseyi Olatunde said local government administration in the state is a hoax. He attributed its ineffectiveness to the excessive control of the state government, lack of financial autonomy, interference in the local government affairs by the state government and the issue of Joint State/Local Government Account.
He said the state government has undermined local governments in the discharge of their functions as the closest government to the people by allegedly diverting its statutorily allocated grants from the Federation Account and giving them paltry sums. He described the state-local government joint account as an aberration and an abuse of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit’s (NFIU) guidelines on financial autonomy for the local governments.
He said the spirit behind the creation of the joint account has been defeated because it gives undue benefit to the state government over local government. He said: “We are not satisfied with Joint State/Local Government account arrangement because it has always being abused by the state government. JAAC is like a pool of local government resources.
“In theory, when allocation comes from Abuja, it would come to that joint account and the state government is expected to add 10 per cent of the IGR before it would be shared to the different local governments. But, in practice, it is not so. Apart from the fact that the money will come into the pool of JAAC, the state government won’t add the 10 per cent and they still take lion share of the money.
“We are not satisfied with the allocation from the JAAC to the local governments. We are not satisfied because it is against the NFIU guidelines. We want the joint account suspended and allow LGs funds go directly to the councils’ account. We don’t need the interventions of the state. Enough of the intermediary roles. The state should steer clear of the councils’ resources and allow them to administer their funds by themselves.”
Jigawa:
Local government council elections are scheduled to hold in Jigawa State next month. The opposition parties have called on the state electoral body to cut the cost of nomination and expression of interest forms.
PDP chairman, Alhaji Babandi Ibrahim Gumel said the cost of the forms is meant to discourage the opposition from contesting the polls, because of the current economic difficulties in the country. He also faulted the state’s electoral body of a deliberate attempt to deny popular candidate, particularly youth to exercise their constitutional right to contest in the post coming local government councils election in the state.
Gumel said the sum of N500,000 and N250,000 for the Nomination and Expression of Interest forms for chairmanship and councillorship race is too much, considering the present economic difficulties in the country.
Nevertheless, the Dutse Local Government PDP Chairman, Alhaji Sa’adu Barwa said the “failure by the APC administration in all levels of government”, particularly failure to provide security and social amenities will pave the way for his party to win the forthcoming local council poll. He said: “The APC exposed Nigerians to economic difficulties by the increase in fuel prices and so many bad economic policies since it took over power in the country.”
Kaduna:
Kaduna State will hold its local government elections on June 15 to fill vacant positions in the 23 local government areas. But, the contest is already dogged by controversy within the ruling APC. Barely 24 hours after the party’s primary was held, a popular chairmanship aspirant for Kaduna North Local Government, Comrade Yusuf Idris Amoke, has alleged that there were irregularities in his council area.
Amoke said the primary was conducted contrary to the set guidelines for the exercise in the party’s constitution. He said what happened was more of a charade and should not be taken seriously. He has, therefore, called on the party leadership in the state to fix a new date for the chairmanship primary in his local government.
Kwara:
Kwara State had been one of the few states that had been holding local government elections regularly. However, the current APC administration led by Governor AbdulRahman AbduilRazaq has failed to live up to expectations in this regard. Almost two years into his administration, Governor AbdulRazaq is yet to conduct an election in the 16 local government areas of Kwara State.
When he took office, he suspended the elected chairmen and councillors elected under the former PDP administration. The leadership of the councils was suspended in September 2019 for alleged financial malfeasance, a month to the expiration of their tenure.
But, some of the embattled chairmen challenged the governor’s action in court, while the vast majority of them defected to the ruling APC.
The governor equally abruptly dissolved the state electoral body upon his assumption of office in 2019. The AbdulRazaq-led government is now insisting that it is constrained by various court cases on the composition of the Electoral Commission and therefore cannot conduct local government elections for now.
Peeved by the governor’s action, the PDP has condemned the government for foot-dragging on the conduct of local government elections. Its spokesman, Tunde Ashaolu asked the governor to immediately commence the processes of conducting the council poll. He also described the appointment of Caretaker Committees by the governor as “unconstitutional, undemocratic, null and void”.
Ashaolu said: “It is public knowledge that the tenure of the suspended chairmen of all the 16 local government councils in Kwara State expired on November 28, 2020. We, therefore, call on Governor Abdulrazaq to immediately initiate the process to conduct elections that will usher in new chairmen, in accordance with the provision of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He said local governments are the closest to the people and are pivotal to guaranteeing effective governance and even development in any state.
Plateau:
The situation in Plateau State is unique. Two forms of the administrative system are currently being used to manage local government in Plateau State by the state government. Five of the 17 local governments are managed by people appointed by the state government, while the remaining 12 are managed by elected council chairmen.
In the six-year-old administration of Governor Simon Lalong, the state has witnessed local government elections once. This was on October 10, 2018. Since the tenure of elected council chairmen runs for three years in Plateau State, their tenure is expected to expire by September this year.
Prior to the inauguration of Lalong on May 29, 2015, the then ruling PDP had conducted a local government election. Of course, the party won in all the 17 local governments, while APC did not win a single local government.
Those who emerged victorious from the 2014 council election were inaugurated, but as soon as Governor Lalong took over, he was under pressure to dissolve those elected chairmen for the new party to gain control of the grassroots. The governor finally succumbed to the pressure and in two months of his resumption of office, he announced the dissolution of the elected council chairmen, and also appointed APC loyalists to replace the elected chairmen.
But, the governor’s action attracted litigation from the dissolved elected chairmen. Three years after the dissolution of elected council chairmen, Governor Lalong has not been able to conduct another election to entrench democracy at the grassroots. The governor cited internal security in the state, as well as economic recess as an excuse for not conducting the elections.
However, on October 10, 2018, Lalong conducted an election in 13 of the 17 local governments, where the ruling party won all the available seats.
The governor said the election may not hold in the remaining four local governments due to the crisis in those areas. The council areas are Jos North, Jos South, Riyom and Barkin Ladi. He has since appointed caretaker administrations in the four local governments.
In spite of the fact that the council chairmen were democratically elected to perform their statutory functions, the state government still wields enormous power over them. One of the elected council chairmen in charge of Quan Pan Local Government, Issac Kwallu was removed by Governor Lalong and he was immediately replaced by an appointed caretaker. The case is still in court.
The governor also removed the elected council chairman of Jos South Local Government and appointed a caretaker chairman to replace him.
Nasarawa:
Nasarawa State has indicated it will not conduct local government elections because of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic. Chairman, Nasarawa State Independent Electoral Commission (NASIEC), Ayuba Wandai cited the pandemic, logistics and administrative challenges as reasons.
The three year – tenure of the current elected council chairmen and councillors will expire on May 28, 2021. The last time council elections were held in Nasarawa State was on May 26, 2018, and they were sworn in on May 28, for a tenure of three years.
The state electoral commission chairman said N300m was earmarked in the 2020 budget. However, he said the commission will be needing up to N600m for the council polls. He said: “For us as a commission, we have a budget of N879m for the conduct of the entire local government election in Nasarawa State.
“Legally from our laws, there are only two factors that can make us either call off an election or postpone the election, the first one is insecurity and the second one is lack of funds, we are still waiting for the release of funds from the Governor. But, in House, we are prepared.”
Governor Abdullahi Sule is not satisfied with the poor performance of the outgoing local government chairmen, who have indicated interest to seek re-election for second term. The governor blames the inability of local councils to pay the salaries on the huge workforce employed by the councils and the lack of initiative of the leaders who have proved too lazy to generate revenue internally
Osun:
Delay by the Osun State Government to appoint caretakers committees to run the affairs of local governments, Area Development Councils and Administrative centres across the state has resulted in uneasy calm among the members of the ruling APC.
On February 5, 2021, Governor Adegboyega Oyetola directed council chairmen and political office holders at the local government to vacate their respective offices. The directive was hinged on the expiration of the tenure of political officeholders in the local government areas in Osun on Friday, February 5, 2021. The executives were elected into office under the administration of Rauf Aregbesola on January 27, 2018.
Oyetola has already sworn in members of the State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) on October 6, 2020.
Before the local government election, Aregbesola introduced a parliamentary system of government by enacting the Osun State Local Government Areas Creation and Administration Law. However, on March 3, 2021, the Osun State House of Assembly approved the Amendment Bill on local government administration. But, the House amended sections of the bill to indicate that whenever an elected local leadership is dissolved and no election has been conducted to reconstitute the council, the state must conduct an election to fill the vacancies thereby created. The governor, the new law stated, shall appoint a Caretaker Management Committee to run the affairs of the council for a period not exceeding six months.
The lobbying within the ruling party for positions in the Caretaker Committee has created disquiet in the party.
Ondo:
Local government elections were conducted in Ondo State in August last year. That was few months to the end of the first tenure of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu. The local elections were earlier scheduled to hold in April, but were postponed due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. It was the ruling APC that won in all the 18 local government.
Before the election, the 18 local councils were presided over by caretaker chairmen appointed by Governor Akeredolu for three years. At the swearing-in ceremony of the newly elected chairmen, Governor Akeredolu advocated synergy between the State and local government to ensure people living in the villages get enough support from the government.
Akeredolu tasked them to focus on quality health care delivery, education and agriculture.
However, low funding from the federation account and the Internally Generated Revenue of the Ondo local councils might hamper their effectiveness. Besides, local council workers now collect percentage salaries depending on the money released from the federation account. It was gathered that what is left for almost all the local councils in Ondo State after payment of salaries are not enough to execute any projects. Grading of earth roads are the most visible projects by the local council Chairmen since they were elected.
Under the administration of former Governor Olusegun Mimiko, some sources of IGR for the local councils were placed under the state government and the revenue shared every six months. Some local councils collect between N2m and N2.5m every six months from the joint revenue account. It could not however be verified how much the local councils earn from levies and rates but ALGON Chairman, Augustine Oloruntogbe said what is earned from levies is not enough to pay for associated logistics.
Oloruntogbe denied insinuation that the state government tampered with the local government fund. He said the council Chairmen would key into the state government agenda just as some of them did as Caretaker Chairmen to be able to construct some roads.
Oyo:
The fight for the soul of the local government in Oyo state has taken a new turn. Recently, the legal tussle that followed the sudden sack of the elected council chairmen and councillors across the 33 local government and 35 local council development area by Governor Seyi Makinde ended in the favour of the sacked council bosses.
Makinde had upon his inauguration on May 29, 2019 announced the immediate dissolution of the local government, basing the decision on some flaws in the conduct of the election.
The sacked council bosses had approached the court, winning at both the High and Appeal court causing intermittent but interrupted joy among the council bosses.
The immediate past administration of late Governor Abiola Ajimobi had organised the local government election at the twilight of his eight years tenure.
In his first four years, Ajimobi could not conduct the poll, based on what he described as legal impediments. Despite pressure from opposition parties, he stood his ground.
But, towards the end of his second term, the election held on Saturday, May 12, 2018, and the elected chairmen were inaugurated by the State Chief Judge, Munta Abimbola on Monday, May 14, 2018, two days after the election held.
The election came almost nine years after the conduct of the last local government election in the state.
Prior to the one conducted by the Ajimobi’s administration, the last council election took place on December 15, 2007, during the regime of a former governor, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala. ?The ex-governor had shortly on the assumption of office sacked the council chairmen that emerged during the election conducted by his predecessor, Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja on the eve of his departure from office in 2007.
When the Ajimobi administration announced plans to conduct council elections in 2018, the then opposition PDP also announced plans not to participate, saying it would rather put its resources together ahead of the governorship election in 2019. The party had said that it would not waste its resources in an election that the then ruling party (APC) had perfected plans to rig in its favour.
The election was eventually won by the ruling APC across the 33 LGAs and 35 LCDAs. However, barely four hours after taking his oath of office and oath of allegiance on May 29, 2019 as the new governor, Makinde disbanded the local government administration despite the claims of the sacked council bosses to work with him.
While the legal tussle lasted, Makinde appointed caretaker council bosses and administrators for the 33LGAs and 35LCDAs respectively on an initial period of three months. Their tenure was renewed intermittently until a few months ago that the last tenure was not renewed in view of plans to hold local government elections.
The Oyo State electoral body, upon its inauguration in September 2020, disclosed its readiness to conduct a credible, free and fair election. It initially announced May 15, 2021, as the date of the election, but later shifted it by a week. The election is to hold on May 22, 2021.
However, with the Supreme Court victory, the opposition APC has called on the state electoral umpire to shift the date for the conduct of the election to allow its members to participate.
Rivers:
Though successive administrations in Rivers State have always found it convenient to conduct local government elections, sometimes, they resort to the use of caretaker committees to run the councils. When Nyesom Wike emerged the governor of Rivers in 2015, the 23 local government areas of the state were run by elected officials. But for political convenience, the governor sacked all of them and immediately constituted caretaker committees to take over their functions.
The chairmen and councillors were sacked because they were put in place by former Governor Rotimi Amaechi and Wike was determined to remove all vestiges of the former governor from the state.
In 2018, the governor ensured the conduct of the local government elections, which was swept by the PDP. Just recently in April 17, 2021, a fresh local government election was held in the state. The PDP won everything from chairmanship to councillorship. Therefore, Rivers’ 23 local government areas are currently being administered by elected officials, whose tenures are expected to expire after three years as provided by the Constitution.
Stakeholders have, however, faulted Wike’s penchant for controlling elected local government chairmen. The governor is fond of suspending them for various offences. For instance, in 2018, Wike suspended 12 chairmen. The affected chairmen then were those of Okrika, Emohua, Abua/Odual, Degema, Khana, Gokana, Ahoada East, Ikwerre, Eleme, Andoni, Omuma and Ogu/Bolo local government areas. They were reportedly disciplined for not participating in state official functions.
Last year the governor suspended some local government chairmen for various offences. The then chairmen of Abual/Odual and Degema local government councils were suspended for failure to attend a meeting called for the inauguration of the COVID-19 palliative committee.
Also, the then Chairman of Port Harcourt City Local Government Area was disciplined for alleged illegal tax collection. Wike’s action generated misgivings and attracted criticisms from the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Yobe:
The last local government election that was held in Yobe State was on February 27, 2021, suggesting that the elected council chairmen with their councilors are barely three months in office. Though the election was supposed to have been held in December last year, the commission shifted the date alleging a spike in the COVID 19 cases.
Although the state could be credited for conducting the council polls, the exercise did not come without the usual caretaker committee fashion employed by governors to run the affairs of the local councils.
Before the February 2021 local government elections in the state, former Governor Ibrahim Gaidam, now a senator, only conducted local government elections three times during his over 11 years reign as governor. The elections were held in 2007, 2013, 2017. While the first elected local government chairmen under Gov. Gaidam served for two years, the second and the third only did 18 months respectively in office.
Going by the above, it could be deduced that the practice of appointing caretaker chairmen at the local government lasted more than six years in Yobe State.
Even with the coming of Governor Buni on board, it took more than a year to conduct the local government election. But, instead, the caretaker chairmen were in charge until last February when the State Independent Electoral Commission finally got the approval to conduct the local government election.
Borno:
In Borno State, Governor Babagana Umara Zulum has also conducted local government election last December after being elected in 2019 as governor.
Before the council polls, no local government election had been conducted in the state during the eight years tenure of Governor Kashim Shettima. His predecessor, Sen Ali Modu Sherrif only conducted local government election once during his first tenure as governor.
Borno’s case, many believe, may not be unconnected to the over 10 years security challenges in the state. At some point, some local government areas were completely taken over by the Boko Haram insurgents, hoisting their flags in such areas and renaming them as their caliphates or territories.
The Nation authoritatively gathered that the two states are operating the state local government joint account which the local government rely on the state government for handouts to execute projects.
Efforts to speak with the Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Yerima Ali Yunusari proved abortive as he did not answer several call put to him nor respond to the text message sent to him.