If at any time local governments in Nigeria actually live up to the objective of helping the people to mobilise their own resources to meet their own needs in a sustainable manner, then decentralisation becomes synonymous with democratic governance which essentially is to ensure popular control over government as well as obtain the accountability of those who hold and exercise power to the people, besides using the resources of government to promote the welfare of the generality of the people.
However, as far as you are concerned in this unit, it appears to us that the requirements of decentralisation to meet the requirements of democratic participation and control need to extend beyond the reform of the local government councils. Even the State Governments and the federal Government need reforms that will decentralise the decision making power over key issues affecting the welfare of the people in areas such as water supply, road construction and the building and setting up of educational institutions.
Reforms in these areas need to affect both the horizontal and vertical levels. Horizontally there is need to reduce the concentration at the federal level by empowering the six geo political zones to enable them perform a more effective co-ordinating, planning and resource allocation role to the States.
Similarly, the States that have senatorial District Development commissions need to similarly empower them in such a way that they will have sufficient resources to impact on the local governments in their areas.
But decentralisation also needs to be pursued at the vertical level. At present most of the decision making power and the authority to incur expenditure are concentrated at the highest echelons of government with the result that officers at lower levels are permanently on a kind of unofficial vacation. If it is the Local Government councils, the Chairman and his supervisory Councillors usually monopolise council funds and decisions; such that the Councils can hardly render any other services than "revenue generation and collection" to their residents.
Similarly, many State Governments under the democratic dispensation have inherited the military habit whereby the military governor or administrator personally awards all contracts and makes all payments.
This practice often leaves the bureaucracy idle and redundant.
Decentralisation would allow the Governors to hand over many of those duties and responsibilities to the Ministries and the civil Service and concentrate on policy formulation and decision-making.
4.0 CONCLUSION
From the foregoing you can conclude that decentralisation (which means the diffusion and dispersal) of political and economic power are a necessary precondition for the growth and development of democratic governance in Nigeria.
As shown in this unit, decentralisation produces three beneficial results which are central to the objective of democratic governance namely:
Increasing the number of participants who are involved in identifying and taking decisions concerning the welfare of citizens; mobilising the people to participate and contribute in the implementation of decisions and programmes regarding their welfare; empowering the people as they work collectively to meet their common goals and aspirations. These in essence are the fundamental objectives of democratic governance.
5.0 SUMMARY
It may be useful to recall here for the purpose of emphasis, some of the societal costs which Nigeria and other African States have had to pay as a result of their pursuit of the centralised model of power in order to appreciate the gains of the decentralised model discussed in this unit.
Whether in Nigeria or elsewhere, the centralised model has often been accompanied by a bloated state security and defence structure, which naturally leads to the excessive allocation of resources to defence expenditure over and above the health, educational and other social sectors. The expansive state sector necessarily engenders economic mismanagement and state corruption. The attempt by civil society organisations to challenge the excesses of the State gives rise in turn to the abuse and violation of human rights by a ruling elite, often determined to hide its crimes including money laundering and the looting of the treasury.
Against these burdens that accompany centralization, the efficiency, cost saving and greater participation provided by decentralisation cannot be overlooked. Perhaps this is the main reason for which decentralisation and democratisation are sometimes utilised inter-chargeable.
If however we recognise the fact that even though these processes describe similar political, economic and administrative processes, democratisation is a more comprehensive term than decentralisation, which is one of the several means available for achieving a democratic political order.
However, from the illustrations given in 3.1 above, it should be clear to us that without the characteristics of a decentralised model identified above, as well as a far reaching reform of the existing local government system along the lines suggested above, it will be difficult to attain democratic governance.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Identify and discuss four way by which decentralisation of political and economic power can help in the building and consolidation of a system of democratic governance in Nigeria.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Olowu, D. (2002) "Stalled Decentralisation Reforms: The Nigerian and Lesions for other African countries" in ADEDEJI, A. and Ayo, B.
(eds) People Centred Democracy in Nigeria? The Search for Alternative systems of Governance at the Grass Roots, Ibadan, Heinemann Educational Books, (Nigeria).
UNIT 3 ENSURING ACCOUNTABILITY