Nigeria

UCLG COUNTRY PROFILES Nigeria

Capital: Abuja Population: 155,215,573 Area: 923,768 sq km

1. Introduction

1.1 General information Nigeria population is approximately 155,215,573 with a growth rate of 1.9%. The birth rate is 36.0/1000 and infant mortality rate is 92.9/1000; life expectancy: 47.2 year.

Located in Western Africa, Nigeria is bounded by the Gulf of Guinea to south and between Benin to the west and Cameroon to the east. The total area covers 923,768 sq km, of which 910,768 sq km is land and 13,000 sq km water.

Nigeria is endowed with a range of mineral resources including: natural gas, petroleum, tin, iron ore, coal, limestone, niobium, lead and zinc.

GDP for 2010 was estimated at $369.8 billion (per capita $2,400, or 360000 Naira). By sector the GDP can be broken down into three sectors: Agriculture (31.9%), Industry (32.9%), Services (35.2%).

1.2 History A former British colony, Nigeria gained independence in 1960. In 1965 the elected government was replace by military rule which lasted close to 16years. From 1980 and 1983 there was a brief period of civilian governments, which was again followed by a period of military rule which came to an end in 1999 when a new constitution was adopted and a peaceful transition to civilian government was undertaken.

During the periods of military government the parliamentary system was replaced by a central command structure with little regional autonomy.

The new constitution in 1999 paved the way for a federal system fashioned along the American model with a three tiers of government (federal, state and local).

2. Territorial structure 2.1 Government tires The federation comprises 36 states and the Abuja Federal Capital Territory, which includes the capital

COUNTY PROFILE: NIGERIA

city Abuja. The National Assembly is bicameral comprising the Senate, which has 109 members (three from each of the 36 states and one from the Federal Capital Territory), and the House of Representatives with 360 members. The president appoints a cabinet, known as the Federal Executive Council (FEC), subject to the approval of the Senate and which must draw from all states of the federation.

Members of the FEC may not serve concurrently as members of the National Assembly and must resign elected office in the legislature to take up positions in the executive.

Each State Government enacts its own legislation and carries out core functions as defined in the constitution, individual states may augment their responsibilities through legislation. There are 768 local governments (LGs) and six area councils, totaling 774.

The commissioner responsible for local government in each state is responsible for their administration and management as defined by the constitution and the State government.

3. Institutions and Local Democracy 3.1 Political Systems Nigeria has a directly elected president as head of government. The president is restricted to serving two four-year terms of office. Executive power is vested in ruling party rather than parliament or national assembly. The President, State Governors and Chairpersons of the local governments wield significant powers and control to majority of the national resources.

The introduction and dominance of military rule in 1966 did not allow local

democracy to thrive and participation of Nigerians in politics was restricted for nearly three decades. Election of leaders through democratic means, in recent years only became possible through political struggle and the interim government of General Abubakar which resulted in a smooth transition of power to a democratic government in 1999. Since then it has been left to the new democratic government at both the Federal and State government levels to advance progress towards real democracy.

The current constitution guarantees a system of local government with democratically elected councils. The constitution also requires all States to enact legislation providing for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of local governments. Local government exists as a single tier in all states and is the third tier of government in Nigeria.

Both national and local elections are bi-partisan and local people vote along party lines to select their leaders.

Leadership election is by a simple majority. In addition to the simple majority a presidential candidate must secure at least 25% of vote cast in two-third of the States.

3.2 Participation Under the current democratic system all Nigerian citizens over 18 years of age are free to participate in elections.

The turnout at different elections varies but the presidential election turnout has always been higher than average.

Violence and the fear of violence had prevented full participation in free and fair election in the past. Experience in recent past tends to suggest that the rates of citizen involvement in elections are increasing. Women in particular have been encouraged II

COUNTY PROFILE: NIGERIA

through advertisement and public awareness campaign and the numbers of young voters are increasing and the average age of political aspirant is becoming lower as democracy becomes more entrenched.

The balance of political power has begun to shift back to the states—the first such shift in three decades.

However despite attempts to improve relationships political unrest, rivalry and power struggle within and between different regional governments continue.

4. Central – local relations

4.2 Supervision of local government The federal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs which is directly responsible to the President is in charge of all matters relating to local government at the federal level.

At the State level each state has a commissioner with responsibility for local government. Their role is to develop policy and legislation relating to local government and to provide oversight.

4.1 Federated System The religious, cultural and socioeconomic differences were instrumental to the adoption of Nigeria’s federal system.

Although this was a suitable framework for keeping Nigeria as a single political entity, the relationship between states is still far from cordial. The persistence of different regional perspectives on governance between the Northern and Southern States has on occasions attempted to undermine the political, social and economic unity of Nigeria.

Each of the regions was formed around the largest ethnic groups. The three regions were also distinguished by their unique cultures and rural economies.

The military created a system of fragmented states with the idea that a larger number of relatively weak states under a strong central government would overcome past instabilities.

The central, states and local government relationship is stronger today than at any time since the demise of the First Republic in 1966.

The constitutional amendment and the return of civilian rule have altered the relationship between the federal government and the states. After years of becoming progressively weaker vis a vis the federal government, political leaders at the state level are now challenging the centre by demanding devolution of authority and resources to the states.

In practice the State Governors have absolute control over local government and in several states elected councilors and the chairs of local government authorities have been suspended by the state governor. In such cases, the governors have appointed caretaker committees to replace them. There are also instances in which the state governors have created new local governments without the due processes creating tension between federal and state government.

The relationship between state and local government is often mixed.

Some governors believe that it is their duty to exercise close oversight over the operations of local government.

Others believe that the LGAs are a constitutionally separate tier of government whose autonomy should be respected. Still others appear to leave the LGAs alone, because they do not wish to be associated with the poor to mediocre performance of these bodies III

COUNTY PROFILE: NIGERIA

5. Local responsibilities 5.1 Local functions The functions, structure, composition and finance of local government are determined by state law within the parameters set forth in Section 7 and the Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution.

While the constitution does provide a clear line of responsibilities some variation from state to state, the majority of local governments have been established on the “presidential model”—the chairman of the LG is directly elected by eligible voters in the local government area.

The local government form committees with executive powers. Members of these committees are elected from the ward councilors and the term of both the chairman and councilors of the LGs is currently three years.

The core functions and responsibilities of the Local Government are defined in the fourth Schedule of the Nigerian Constitution. They are: pre-school, primary and adult education; public health (including primary care and health protection); town and regional planning; roads and transport; refuse collection and disposal; cemeteries and crematoria; environmental protection; sports; leisure and open spaces; and religious facilities. Other functions include; - Responsibility for basic environmental sanitation and other aspects of preventive health services; - Administration of maternity centres, dispensaries and leprosy clinics and Health Centres; - Construction and maintenance of roads and drains, excluding federal and state roads; - Jurisdiction over local inland waterways not designated as international water ways;

-

Rural water supply and extension of urban water supply; Construction, and maintenance of primary schools; Agriculture and veterinary extension services; Town Planning; Care of markets, motor parks, and gardens; Maintenance of law and order; and Reforestation

5.2 Human resources Local government has been the object of inconsistent policies on the part of the Federal Government of Nigeria as a succession of regimes alternatively enhanced or reduced autonomy. The third tier of government in the federal system represented the weakest arm of government. Consequently it has suffered and has been unable to attract a sufficient number of dynamic and competent leaders to guide its development.

The Local Government Service Commission (LGSC), a State government body, is responsible to the recruitment of senior staff while individual local authority is responsible for junior members of staff. These bodies have the authority to hire and discipline staff. Each local authority is required to appoint the director of administration, who is the head of the paid service.

Local government staff, in many States, is rated lower than state civil servants and does not have cachet of career in the State or the Federal government. If LGs are to play a larger role in delivering services efficiently and effectively, the image and condition of service need to be significantly improved. Salary scales of local government staff are tied to that of the civil service of the state within which they serve, with the same pay and allowances. Most LGs in Nigeria IV

COUNTY PROFILE: NIGERIA

conform to a fairly standard organizational structure with six main departments: general administration, finance, education, health and social welfare, works and housing, and agriculture and natural resources.

The local governments visited by the mission had staff complements ranging from around 400 to over 1,000, with urban councils employing more staff than rural ones.

Although staff salaries are carried in LG budgets, the regular staff of the Council belong to a State’s unified Local Government Service, which in turn is supervised by the state LGSC. Considering all 774 LGAs, there are approximately 500,000 local government public servants across Nigeria, excluding primary school teachers – which are employed not by Councils, but by the State Primary Education Board.

6. Local finances 6.1 Revenue sharing The federation account distribution is split approximately: Federal government 54% State government 25% Local government 21%.

Federal and State government is responsible for raising and collecting taxes. Local governments collect some local taxes, such as haulage, hawking, markets, motor and commercial drivers’ levies.

6.2 Intern-governmental fiscal transfers In general terms the bulk of the local government revenue comes from Statutory Allocation, which makes up on average 60 percent or more of their

income. The financial allocation means that local governments can master their own affairs. In addition, local governments have the powers to raise local tax to augment the central government financial allocations Grants and subventions from federal and state governments including ecological and special funds are also disbursed to local authorities on the basis of needs.

6.3 Own-source funds and loans Own-source fund include local taxes, such as rates, hawking, markets, local licenses, fees from road haulage and fines motor and commercial drivers’ levies.

Local authorities can attract domestic as well international loans to finance specific projects such as dams, agricultural holdings and the purchase of special equipment for infrastructure.

States have reacted differently to the need for local governments to generate more of their revenues internally and to submit to regular external audit.

6.4 Local revenues and expenditures No aggregate for local government revenue is currently available. Below is an example from one authority of the breakdown of its revenue in 2002: allocation 59%  Statutory  

   

(transfer payments) Rates Local licences, fees and fines Earnings from commercial undertakings

12% 5% 10%

Taxes

1%

Interest payments and dividends Other

2%

11%

No aggregate expenditure is available.

The same local authority as used in V

COUNTY PROFILE: NIGERIA

the revenue section has the following breakdown of expenditure: 30%  General 12% 6% 9%



administration Democractic services Education Health Serivces undertakings

Environmental Serivce

9%



Other

34%

 



Local governments are not permitted to set deficit budgets.

6.5 Financial accountability Financial accountability in local governments is monitored through external audit carried out by an independent Auditor-General of Local Governments in each State.

inadequate manpower, poor budgetary provision, lack of official support from the state government and absence of up-to-date annual accounts to work on.

Many local governments lack internal capacity to keep good records and ensure annual audits are carried out on schedule, in other cases some wilfully resist submitting their accounts for audit.

Since some state governments’ accounts are audited many years in arrears, political will to insist on regular audit of local government accounts is weak.

Accounts are prepared by the finance department, in most cases within a year after accounts have closed, and forwarded to the Local Government Auditor-General, who, like the State Auditor-General, is a servant of the State House of Assembly. The office is a constitutional one, but it is a watchdog only.

If disciplinary measures are recommended, it is up to the LGSC to implement them. Local Government audit reports are submitted to the State House of Assembly, which passes them on to the Public Accounts Committee.

The state government Bureau for Local Government Affairs is typically staffed with local government inspectors, who routinely visit LGs and submit reports, but they are effective only to the extent that a supervisory role over LG affairs is acknowledged by both the State Government and the House of assembly.

While all states have an auditorgeneral, everywhere the office has been seriously compromised by VI