What next, after the local government elections

Anyone who followed the recent elections into the local government councils in some states would have come to the conclusion that it was a charade, a repeat of the same old songs. In many of the states, the conduct of the elections was just for fun and to perhaps meet statutory provisions. In some cases, perhaps the results had been predetermined, which means that some handpicked fellows, political surrogates of governors and some other political juggernauts, were simply handed the winning tickets in the name of elections.

So, for the next three years or so, these fellows will be both servants and lords at the same time. They will occupy seats in the name of elected officials but in reality will be there to do the bidding of their masters who in the first place put them there. They will be executive local government chairmen and councillors, whose loyalty will be first to the governor or some influential personality in the state, to whom they will render accounts.

The circumstances that surrounded these elections and the glaring lack of transparency in some cases, beg the question: what is the essence of electing local government leadership that has neither financial power nor purpose in today’s politics in Nigeria.

Against the constitutional provisions, the state governments have sandwiched LGs, denying the people the benefit of perhaps the most relevant arm of government. While the governors are clamouring for fiscal federalism (which I support, by the way), they turn around to choke the council areas of funds meant for development.

They demand the devolution of power from the centre to Nigeria’s constituent units, but deny their LGAs the autonomy they deserve for development to trickle down to our poverty-stricken rural dwellers. Of what use is the leadership of a local government council that only collects salaries and spends its IGR (if any) but lacks the power to take independent decision on its finances?

It is even possible that prior to the council elections, sharing formulas would have been perfected on how the revenue (IGR and FAAC from Abuja), will be shared on a monthly basis. It would have been agreed upon and sealed on who gets what, etc. This is the measure of their “servant hood”.

These so-called elected chairmen and councillors will, in turn, become lords to residents of their territories, powerful men and women who care not a bunch about service to the people who were supposed to have elected them.

That is the tragedy of our time and the bane of anything that resembles development in our rural areas. That is why the local government system is fast becoming a good example of Nigeria’s many failed experiments. The argument was that the creation of the local government system would take development closer to the ordinary folks who reside in our villages, just like the argument for the creation of states.

This explains the multiplication of the LGAs until it got to the current number of 774. Yet development continues to elude a majority of Nigerians. Our rural areas remain uninhabitable, destitute of everything that makes for human existence. In many of them, potable water is still a luxury, just as power and healthcare are out of reach for most of them. What have the council leaders done about the poor state of education in most of their domains, where primary school children are often seen sitting on the ground in decrepit school halls or even under trees, to take lessons?

Today, the rural areas are sinking further into poverty, with the cities swelling as villagers are running away from poverty. So, what is the local government council for? Is it not a waste of resources conducting the elections, and subsequently pretending to be running government structures on account of the socalled elections. Nigeria’s rural areas today lie prostrate, abandoned, and emasculated by bad governance marked by greed and ineptitude of the leadership.

A financially dependent local government council is simply a puppet set up to deceive the people. On the contrary, if they are well-empowered, they can better coordinate people at the grassroots to check the menace of insecurity and salient issues undermining the progress of the country.

By the way, how many governors and local government chairmen actually know the hinterlands? How many can boast of the resources lying fallow in their domains waiting to be tapped for the good of the people?

With stories about absentee or visiting council chairman, it is no wonder that our hinterlands have been taken over by bandits and all manner of armed gangs. Such visiting chairmen come around only on the day of distribution of the largess from Abuja, and once that is completed, they take off to return the next sharing day. Without the knowledge and consent of the godfather governor, of course, such an arrangement cannot endure.

Clearly, the interest of most contestants, including some of the governors and would-be local government chairmen and councillors, is the money that is supposed to flow to the grassroots for development. Even with its defects, the existing revenue sharing allocation formula if faithfully implemented, will drive a reasonable amount of money into the villages to make an impact. Just as a reminder to the reader, this formula gives 52.68 per cent of distributable funds to the federal government, 26.72 per cent to the state governments and 20.60 per cent to the local governments.

The clamour for LGA office will get even more intense, as the planned review of the revenue sharing formula comes into effect next year if it goes through. After all, the demand for a new revenue sharing formula is being fuelled by the cry for more money to flow to the federating units, including the local government areas.

Perhaps if the LGs are no longer useful and relevant as the governors may have purported in sandwiching them, can we stop wasting funds conducting LG elections. After all, our democracy may be too expensive and we need to critically think of reducing this bogus political lifestyle that does not serve any useful purpose.

A financially dependent local government council is simply a puppet set up to deceive the people. On the contrary, if they are well-empowered, they can better coordinate people at the grassroots to check the menace of insecurity and salient issues undermining the progress of the country.