How Kano council elections will compromise LG autonomy, By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

NOBODY is talking about the damage that the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission, KANSIEC, is about to unleash on Nigeria’s local governments, and the large politics of Nigeria with the nomination fees of N10m for chairmanship candidates and N5m for councillorship positions.
Some would say that how Kano runs its local government elections is an issue for the state. Even if it is a local election, whatever happens in Kano would have a fundamental impact on our local government system.

The election billed for 30 November 2024 will be the first since constitutional amendments awarded enormous autonomy to local governments. The ruling party in Kano is doing all it can to keep Kano firmly in its control such that the 2027 elections will be more predictable.
Here is a glimpse of the picture.
If three major parties – New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP, All Progressives Congress, APC,  Peoples Democratic Party, PDP – field candidates in all the 44 local government areas as chairmanship candidates, KANSIEC would make N1.32 billion. Kano State’s local government councils have 484 councillors.

Again, if we stick with only the same three major parties, having councillorship candidates for 484 positions, Kano’s election body will earn N7.26 billion from selling the local government election forms. If we add the funds raised from the chairmanship candidates it would be a total of N8.58 billion from selling pieces of paper.
In June 2024 monthly allocation from FAAC, 14 states got less than N8 billion each, just to put in perspective what KANSIEC could collect from selling forms.

In supporting the high fees imposed on aspirants by KANEIC, NNPP’s Kano State chairman, Hashimu Dungurawa said the elections were only for people of high quality and sense of reasoning who could afford the fees.
“These fees would enhance effective management of Local Governments in the state and allowe for only credible persons to vie for the seats unlike what obtained in the past when every Dick and Harry contested.” He hints at exclusion.

Executive Chairman of KANSIEC, Prof Sani Lawan Malumfashi, said the decision on the N10m, N5m nomination forms was final. His reasons are simply dictatorial.
“There is no going back on the amount earlier. We are not going to change or reduce it, there is no going back. It’s already in our guidelines and already a law to us.
“It is not about encouraging money politics, everything is not the way it used to be. We are also going to spend huge amounts, the materials and everything we are going to use must cost money so we are going to bear the cost too,” he said.

Prof Malumfashi chose further rambling to justify the heist the Commission is staging in Kano State, and on its people. Does it cross his mind for once that the 2024 local government elections in Kano are basically meant to exclude the many who cannot afford the fees?

There are more dangers. Who will invest N10m or N5m in buying forms in elections that chances of success are limited by the fact that the umpire would not dance beyond the tunes the appointing authorities beat?
“We said very clearly that the inflation rate in this country has affected virtually everything because nothing in the market is free now. Kano State is one state equal to three with 44 LGAs, 484 wards, 11,022 polling units, over six million voters and we are recruiting over 30,000 ad hoc staff,” he gave as more justification for the fees that are unknown to elections in Nigeria.
Is it possible that KANSIEC is a revenue generating body? Does the state government not have a budget for the Commission?
The Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, does not charge fees for forms which it hands out to political parties for their candidates From where did KANEIC borrow this law? What is the intention of the hefty fees if not to squeeze the small parties out of the contest? Local government elections are meant to reflect the plurality of mass societies that are easily masked by pretences to oneness, false unity, and tendencies to truncate the will of others, no matter how minor they seem.

What KANSIEC is doing on behalf of the state government is very deep. It wants to make nonsense of local government autonomy by excluding other parties from participation in the election. If it cannot achieve that fully, it would minimise their numbers to ensure that NNPP gains a clear majority that achieves two things in a swoop – return local government allocations to the State purse, and plant a firm feet on the race to the 2027 elections. The tenure of those to be elected in November will cover the 2027 elections. Kano’s 44 LGAs got N10.9 billion from FAAC in June 2024,  a huge amount that should tempt most state governments.
The 2027 tussle serves the winner more than a paltry N10.9 billion monthly.

Malumfashi, a professor of Sociology of Bayero University, Kano, penned this piece on 21 August 2022 in The Nigerian Tracker: “The educated are the ones to defend, advance and promote education. Because they pursue education they know its values the most. It is therefore unthinkable to expect the uneducated to come to the aid of education, no don’t even expect that. Between literacy and illiteracy are two historic enemies, so are between literates and the illiterates. While the former are living the later are dead. So mind not the dead!
“The illiterates can’t and will not for they have the eyes but can’t see, the brain but can’t reason, the heart but can’t beat and the body but can’t feel. They assume that the head God gave you is mainly for fetching water, carrying loads and drawing wood oblivious of the fact that deep inside the head there exists brain.
“Brain itself feeds on knowledge and knowledge is often applied to recreate and transform man and his environment.” He was encouraging Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to not give up on its strike.
It behoves Nigerians who see the dangers the primed local government elections in Kano pose to local government autonomy, to seek judicial intervention to restore inclusiveness in the race.
Let us use the “knowledge” that Malumfashi has provided to “recreate and transform man and his environment” in Kano and other states where governors will imitate Kano’s pace.

Finally…
•NIGERIANS are buying kerosine at N2,400 per litre. The biggest users of kerosine are those termed ordinary Nigerians who are most hit by the economic pressures. Why is there no subsidy on kerosine? We seem to forget that as kerosine becomes more expensive, the alternative would be our fragile forests. High price of kerosine would result in more deforestation as we go for more firewood. The consequence are more expensive.

•THE week has a pending tension as the police interrogate Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, on weighty allegations of treason, felony, terrorism financing, cybercrime, and subversion. Police had warned last week, when it served Ajaero a one-day notice to appear befire investigators that Ajaero risked arrest if he didn’t come. Ajaero’s lawyer Femi Falana stated in a letter that his client would be available on Wednesday due to prior appointments. He also said Ajaero needed details of the allegations to prepare his defence.

•Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues.