Amid the clamour for local government autonomy in the country, the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, has called for the scrapping of State Independent Electoral Commissions, SIECs. IPAC is the umbrella body of the registered political parties in Nigeria, which are currently 19 in number......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
National Chairman of IPAC, Yusuf Dantalle, who made the call in an interview with THE WHISTLER, said the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should be saddled with the responsibility of conducting all elections in the country, including local government polls.
In a judgement that asserted the financial autonomy of local governments, the Supreme Court had in July 2024 declared that it is unconstitutional for state governors to hold funds allocated for local government administrations.
The Supreme Court declared that the 774 local councils in the country should manage their funds themselves. The apex court, in the same vein, declared that the state governments have no power to appoint caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments, stressing that local councils must be administered by democratically elected governments.
However, there are concerns that the governors will continue to control the local governments by imposing their cronies as chairmen through elections organised by the State Independent Electoral Commissions.
In recent times, the ruling party has swept local government elections organised by State Independent Electoral Commissions in various states.
The ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, won all 20 chairmanship seats in the Saturday, August 17, local council elections in Bauchi State. The election was conducted by the Bauchi State Independent Electoral Commission, BYSIEC.
In a similar development, the local government election in Bayelsa State, conducted by the Bayelsa State Independent Electoral Commission, BYSIEC, in April 2024, was swept by the PDP – the ruling party in the state – which won the chairmanship seats in the eight LGAs and councillorship positions in the 105 wards.
Also in April 2024, the Gombe State Independent Electoral Commission, GOSIEC, declared that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, won all 11 chairmanship seats and 114 councillors positions in the state’s LG elections.
In the same month, the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission, OYSIEC, announced that the ruling PDP won all chairmanship seats in the 33 LGAs in the state’s council polls.
In July 2024, a number of LG elections conducted by State Independent Electoral Commissions were also swept by the ruling party in different states, including Adamawa where the PDP won all the 21 chairmanship seats, Ebonyi where the APC won all the 13 chairmanship and 171 ward councillorship seats, and Delta, where all 24 chairmanship seats were won by the PDP.
Speaking on the development, IPAC national chairman, Dantalle, said the scrapping of the SIECs would stop governors from imposing their candidates on the local councils.
Dantalle stressed that the much desired local government autonomy will remain a mirage if the State Independent Electoral Commissions continue to conduct LG elections.
He said, “IPAC has always advocated for total autonomy for local governments. Democracy is meant to be a system of government that is representative, where people freely choose and you cannot have democracy at the federal and state levels without the government which is closest to the people.
“So until these so-called State Independent Electoral Commissions are scrapped, it will be difficult to have local government autonomy.”
The IPAC national chairman, who is equally the national chairman of the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, noted that the governors have been able to pocket the local governments through the SIECs.
He stressed that the Supreme Court judgement on local government autonomy will not make much difference if the state electoral commissions are not scrapped.
“Today the local governments are no longer what they were, they can’t do anything on their own. They are all in the pockets of the respective state governors who choose who they want to be there and issue directives to them.
“The Supreme Court judgement is a step in the right direction but we need to deepen it with the scrapping of the State Independent Electoral Commissions so INEC can be empowered to conduct elections.”
Pointing to the situation in Rivers State, where a court has stopped INEC from releasing the voters register for the conduct of the state’s local council elections, the IPAC chief noted that the SIECs have no business conducting elections in the first place since they don’t possess the critical election materials.
Dantalle said, “Now INEC has voters register, INEC has PVCs, they delimitate constituencies and as it stands today the State Independent Electoral Commissions don’t even have PVC. You can see what happened recently in the case of Rivers State that a court is stopping INEC from releasing voters register to the State Independent Electoral Commission for the conduct of local government elections.
“If INEC is the one conducting the election this will not be happening and what this means is that the State Independent Electoral Commissions don’t even have the materials to conduct elections.”
IPAC also condemned the imposition of exorbitant fees on political parties and candidates participating in local government elections by the state electoral commissions. The Council described the development as a ploy to exclude citizens from the electoral process.