A Mayoral office could help revive local governance and drive development in Nigeria’s largest city.
On the 23rd of October 1950, a couple of weeks shy of a decade before Nigerians clinched onto independence: two dozen newly elected members of Lagos’ New Town Council selected from amongst themselves Dr. Abubakar Ibiyinka Oluwa-Nimbe as Lagos’ first and only Mayor. Almost 70 years on and now one of the world’s most populous cities, Lagos is without adequate administration.
The neglect that the city experiences, like most communities across the country, sits within a broader problematic of local governance in Nigeria. Over the years, ever since the ambitious reforms of 1976 that were intended to empower local government institutions, those same institutions have atrophied and Nigerians throughout the country have become increasingly removed from any sort of productive government presence.
The blame for abandoned infrastructure projects, the city’s hellish traffic and the government absenteeism that makes urban life in the city unnerving is often laid before the Governor of Lagos State. But perhaps it’s time for some institutional creativity to bring Lagos firmly into a metropolitan 21stcentury.
Lagos, the Mega-City
Lagos has long been in an awkward state of flux, particularly during the spells under military rule when the whole nation would pivot between coup and countercoup, where real practicable governance was uncertain. Around the turn of the century, free-flowing urban movement — fed by urbanisation — would come to jostle with haphazard commercial development. This turbulent character that the city wears effortlessly and with quite a bit of ‘swagger’ is testament to an absence of government by way of any real urban planning.
Beyond the surface lies an urban economy that’s a powerhouse in its own right, contributing 60% of Nigeria’s non-oil revenue whilst only housing 10% of its population. Lagos State, which is the 3,577 km2 within which the 1,171 km2 city of Lagos sits is the richest in the country. Some have even figured that were it to be its own country, it would have the fifth largest economy on the continent.
Getting Lagos right isn’t just important for something as straightforward as economy, but for a rapidly urbanising country like Nigeria — with booming cities like Kano, Ibadan and Kaduna following steadily behind — figuring out how to effectively govern a city like Lagos could set a very welcome precedent. On the flip side, the country finds itself at a unique juncture for which complacency going forward could see Lagos become the centre of the political, social and perhaps even environmental upheaval that could finally unravel Nigeria; an already fragile idea.
No pressure.
The Problem
The principal concern for local administration in Lagos ought to be that of local service delivery: how can decision makers in Lagos’ local communities improve the provision of public services? As ever, greater proximity to the governed affords the opportunity for a richer governance experience. Local trumps state or even central government when it comes to breadth and depth of knowledge. The playbook writes itself: the closer government is to the people, the better.
On that basis, you wouldn’t be to blame for thinking that local government councils would be Nigeria’s one great hope for governance at the grassroots bringing in rapid and well-informed local development. Well, unfortunately the same constitution that breathes life into these units conscripts them into the state Governor’s service.
Section 7of the constitution tucks local government councils neatly into the pocket of Governors by first of all, giving them sole charge of the democratic processes through which communities elect their councillors. While the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) organises, undertakes and supervises all elections above and including state executives and legislatures, the constitutionally recognised state electoral commissions — nominally independent from the Governor — do the same for local government elections within the state.
Lagos State’s recent local government elections were 6 years overdue after the credibility of the 2011 elections were disputed. The governing party of the state, APC (All Progressives Congress) won all 20 LGAs (Local Government Areas) and 37 LCDAs (Local Council Development Areas). In place of elected chairmen, the Governor at the time, Babatunde Fashola, installed 57 “sole administrators” accountable to him rather than those who would otherwise have been their constituents. Even when they’re democratically elected, local government representatives are often always beholden to the state Governor as an electoral wipe-out of by the governing party is more than likely, if not certain.
Second of all, the 20.6% of the Federation Account that is to be shared amongst Nigeria’s 774 municipal units also passes through the hands of the Governor. For quite some while, LGAs in Lagos have only been given the amount to cover their running costs.
Quite depressingly, the political and economic are combined to mean that local governments can often just be pawns for the state Governor and their fiscal impotence leaves many councils across the country to be found wanting beyond their political utility to the big man in the state capital. What this means for Lagosians is that those who would otherwise be their first ports of call for things like primary, adult and vocational education; maintenance of some roads, streets and street lighting; public conveniences like waste disposal are all lame ducks.
A Way Forward
Any way forward for Lagos would need for all local government units to be wrested from the state government’s double choke hold. Transformative development at this level or any sort of effective governance — at the very least — is not possible when administrators at the grassroots, though far more proximate to the people, are only accountable to their political patrons in state office.
Simply going on to ‘empower’ local government councils wouldn’t offer too much respite. What could arise in place of currently moribund organisations are municipal units that grow to be more powerful than would benefit their constituents who live within and between their jurisdictions. Cue the administrative fragmentation problem.
The administrative fragmentation problem could mean that as Layo travels through the city on a Saturday morning, running errands, travelling from FESTAC Town and ending up on the Island — Lagos Island — her crossing up to 6 administrative boundaries: from Amuwo Odofin through Mushin and going on to endure Third Mainland Bridge could find her stuck between uncooperative and perhaps even feuding local government councils. Like Layo, most Lagosians cross local government boundaries several times over on a daily basis. Empowered local government units without a unifying, homogenizing central authority take on the potential of making natural-functional interactions with the city jarring.
Beyond this, without some common direction and cohesion, local service delivery will not just be variable across the city but would likely suffer without the added economies of scale.
A Mayor for an urban community like Lagos isn’t exceedingly creative. It’s not that far out there as an idea. It’s been tried, tested and proven all over the world, but finding what works within the Nigeria context as an intermediate level of government between state and local — close enough to the latter and delineated as much as possible from the former (so as not to be either obsolete or simply a tributary of the state government) — is what matters.
The perfect Mayoral office for the Nigerian context would likely strike a watershed line between the highly politicised and quite honestly unproductive field of state and national politics and preserve for local decision-makers a highly technocratic vocation, where policy is king. What this might mean is that the Mayor of Lagos could be a non-partisan office where, despite individual party affiliations, candidates are not selected by any parties or represented by any party logos on the ballot paper. To win over the people of Lagos leave your domineering party structures at the door. Mayoral candidates could also be required to have been resident in the city for at least a year, perhaps even having contributed to the city’s coffers by way of tax.
One likely route is that of a directly elected Mayor similar to London’s own Mayor, who is the chief executive of a devolved regional authority or what is known in the American context as a strong-mayor and council system. Lagos’ own mayor could sit at the head of a table of LGA chairmen who would represent their local communities whilst also scrutinising the Mayor, potentially — given a two thirds supermajority — overruling the executives budget and programme. Electoral apathy and fatigue would make light work of the thought of having a separate elected assembly. LGA chairmen could help enforce the Mayors programme while enjoying enough autonomy as would be sensible to embark on their own projects. Deputy Mayors charged with disparate areas of metropolitan governance would comprise the Mayors immediate team. Their portfolios being mapped to the texture of Lagos’ priorities and challenges. Some notable mentions: Roads, Traffic and Transport; Education and Human Capital Development; Business.
More Government, More Problems
If you hadn’t noticed, government doesn’t have the greatest reputation in Nigeria. So, with all its potential merits, the idea of a Mayoral office for Nigeria’s darling commercial capital is quite an awkward one to proffer. Is the solution to bad government, more government? Well, for Nigeria the answer might just be ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
Where politics — crudely, the distribution of power — is still very much informal such that decisions that affect the livelihoods of Nigerians are often treated in the living rooms of non-elected elites (due to their leverage over their elected counterparts) : broadening and deepening government will always widen the scope for state predation and corruption. Most Nigerians would naturally oppose more government on the basis of some rendition of that explanation.
Nevertheless, the opportunity remains to restore to the formal, more representative and proximate channels of government the responsibility to improve the livelihoods of Lagosians and Nigerians in general. Admittedly, the small shifts in the system needed to underwrite these opportunities are quite far off on the horizon. Finding the political will to amend the constitution and give way to a Mayor in the great State of Lagos is a Herculean task, if not a Sisyphean one. Alas, we live to build another day.
