Anambra State transition to elected local councils
FOR an administration annunciating and charting the path ways for an enduring, transformative and sustainable livable State transition committees are both a springboard, sufficient and necessary condition as well as the surest political blueprint that can only but be valid as the truth function of democracy. The stake of Mr. Governor’s political suave, integrity and vision is unwavering and beyond public expectations given the value of barely two years old transition committees that will usher in democratically elected local councils.
Therefore, every developmental permutation and democratic institutions in the state under the two years of the administration is bound to be in transition to avoid the kneejack approaches of the past. For the avoidance of doubt, transition in a democracy is a pragmatic concept for short and medium terms midwifing of democratic windfalls and dividends. As encapsulated in section ( 7) of the Nigerian constitution, so that the precepts of that section of the constitution as amended would guarantee a democratically elected local government councils.
When Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo’s administration came to power one year and some months ago, March 17, 2022, transforming Anambra state to livable home land was uppermost in the scheme of visionary calculation of the transition blueprints which local governments transition communities are only integral formation of a dynamic democratic process. There was no holds barred approaches in the democratic process to either concretisation of Anambra state as livable homeland or local councils elections as the efficient cause of the government of the people by the people and for the people.
For an administration that is under pressures to reach the target of a livable homeland
local councils election in view is not yet a problematic, ‘ conundrum’, forgotten , oblique or cancelled. In Nigerian context it is a difficult exercise but in Anambra state it is too early to judge the incumbent government that is prepared to turn the table.
The administration of Governor Peter Obi conducted first and last local councils election in its eight years in office, In 2014, while that of Willy Obiano, erased that concept from a constitutional mindset. But genuinely perturbed by the constitutionality of local councils elections and LGA imbroglio in Nigeria, one could say that Gov. Peter Obi’s is not a standard while Willy Obiano’s is a hoax and dark ship in a democracy.
Yet, the land mark judgment in a suit No. FHC/ EN/ CS/ 90/ 2005 to the effect that “the Governor of Anambra State has no power for the appointment and approval of caretaker management …” is, all things being equal, obligatory and command force of law to all state governments. But why is this the headache of Nzomiwu and other partisan political gladiators just barely two years of Soludo’s administration. In his article: ‘ Anambra: The conundrum surrounding Soludo’s LG transition committees’, The Guardian, 10- 12024, argued: “Regrettably, Soludo has followed the path of his predecessors, running the councils with unelected officials tagged ‘ transition chairmen’… and in flagrant disobedience of a subsisting judgement of a competent court…”. In politics we must instructively be adjudged to be restrained by reason to avoid running before the horse or putting the cart before the horse even with fallacious arguments that could jeopardise the historical process of a society in transition to greatness.
More so, reason and only reason which is the touch light of this administration, will circumvent the abyss of democracy highlighted by Socrates thus: “Thieves and fraudsters will want important government functions, and democracy will give it to them… And at that time, when thieves and fraudsters finally, and democratically take authority; because criminals and evil doers want power, there will be worse dictatorship than in the time of any monarchy or oligarchy.” Socrates ( 470- 399 B). Any constitution in any country whatsoever is a secondary rule while the grand norm subjecting the constitution to interpretation is the primary rule. Therefore, politicians should not be errantly oblivious of constitutional hermeneutics. Section 7( 1) obliges the people of Nigeria to upholding and defending LG elections only and only in a secure and peaceful polity, while avoiding fallacies of hasty conclusion with a matter that demands sufficient time and space for logical validation is a democratic imperative.
The inordinate and hasty call for the elections, therefore, commits further fallacy of begging the section 7( 1) of the constitution because the constitution is made for man and not man for the constitution. How could the Governor have followed the path of his predecessors just in two years of his administration when one of his predecessors conducted the election few months before he left office and the other completely abandoned the election?
Governor Soludo is yet to follow their unenviable paths. All the fallacious arguments is a bid to stamped the government into hackneyed actions with backlashes and inconsequentialities, without the common good in view. Anambra state will hold LGA very soon but not until every transition from the abyss to the moral high ground for a democratic governance is appropriated.
Nzomiwu fallacy of statistics could only be a phantom of imagination, otherwise, where is the bases that about “N100b have been accrued to the Local government areas In Anambra state…”. There has been no evidence of the Governor taking over the responsibility of the House of Assembly. Chapter 1. Part 2. Section 7 of the Nigerian constitution states clearly that, the House of Assembly of a State shall make provisions for statutory allocation of public revenue to local government councils within the State. In Anambra state the principle of checks and balances subsists among the three arms government.
A few questions, however, should be asked about the necessary and sufficient conditions for holding an election, as the grass root governance in Nigeria is continually threatened by multidimensional insecurity. At whose risk will the election be conducted in a fragile security environment? Certainly, at the high risk of the people. Without redefining and reintegrating the battered inalienable rights of the people, will they exercise their rights meaningfully?
It can only be imagined. Above all, where are the dividends of millennium and sustainable development goals that have bypassed the previous administrations and which would be a forerunner to enduring Local governance system? The council election now is like putting a cart before the horse amid current social engineering to remake Anambra state a livable homeland.
Holding any council election before now in the state would worsen the inherited syndrome of insecurity. There is no doubt that democracy, being a rational process, would demand rational persons and citizens powered by equal economic opportunities and well being to exercise their voting rights In a ventilating socio- political atmosphere.