Citizens’ failure to make demands on their leaders has encouraged bad governance - Khaleel
The National President Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) Ibrahim Khaleel, has said that governors, coupled with a weak citizenry has robbed the local government system in Nigeria of elected representatives. He insisted that there cannot be democracy without citizens’ participation, engagement and interrogation of the system, calling on citizens to begin to put their leaders on their toes. The NULGE boss also spoke about local government autonomy and other issues. NATHANIEL GBAORON in Jalingo, brings the Excerpts:
You were recently turbaned. How do you feel about the honour?
Let me start by appreciating the Almighty God for his mercies and blessings on myself, family and the organisation I am leading. As a leader of this vibrant trade union I enjoy the support of membership across the country. It is through the loyalty, cooperation and understanding of the membership that we are able to achieve tremendous things we have been able to achieve, especially in the area of our struggle to emancipate local government system. As you heard, the Galadima of Muri in his remarks before and after the turbaning, he noticed our activities in this organisation. So, by and large, I see the gesture more to the organisation than to myself and my family. I feel so proud; I feel so good, that the little that we are able to contribute to the Nigeria project people across the country are seeing the positivity in it and are also appreciating us. Not only appreciating by statements but by actions. In any community or traditional setting, they have their own culture of appreciating people that to them excel or add value to what they are doing or their aspirations. And that was exactly what the Galadima expressed during the turbaning and I believe this is great.
The National Financial intelligence Unit (NFIU) has issued directives with regard to local government finances. Yet, some states are still operating the local government system on caretaker arrangement. Do you have plans, with regards to such states?
Let me approach this question from this angle, which to me will look more global. More global in the sense that we should not continue to restrict or confine our thinking on local government administration to the encroachment of governors, violation of the Constitution and exclusive preserve of the local govern
” It will surprise you more when you see citizens, indigenes of a particular local government trooping into government houses of the various states in numbers, lobbing for a governor to appoint so and so person as a caretaker chairman, when the Constitution is very clear about leadership at the local government
ment, hijack of the entire sanctity of the local government by successive administrations; we should look at it beyond that.
Why I am saying so is because the local government system is a product of useful instrument, inclusive platforms, that is designed purposely to bring government closer to the people; to address gaps in governance; to address gaps in democracy. It is a deliberate design to enhance citizen’s participation which is key in any democratic setting.
If you look closely, at any politician, be it in Nigeria, United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, or anywhere in the world the mindset of the politician is the same. They think alike, they pursue their personal interest and their interest is placed above any other interest. Why some countries get it right is that the followers, the citizens, interrogate governance; engage in governance. In Nigeria, the citizens have this ‘I don’t care’ attitude. They only complain at beer parlours, community squares when they are discussing issues. Failure to take the bull by the horns is where Nigerians are missing it.
For any citizen of any country to think that democracy will give them what they want, without they as citizens complementing, interrogating and engaging democracy to ensure that it is tailored towards their aspirations, certainly that democracy will be meaningless. And that is what we are experiencing here in Nigeria. We have weak civil society organisations or even none; because here, civil societies survive with patronage from the government.
Is it the system that is bad or the politicians have succeeded in dividing us along ethnic, religious and regional lines to prevent us from coming together to actually take action?
I can clearly agree with the fact that failure of citizens to engage and interrogate the government is largely affected by the divisions and the failure of the citizens to understand that religion is not a yardstick for measurement in democratic dispensations. Merit, capacity and ability are the parameters the voter should use rather than that one is from my region, he is from my community, we pray in the same Church or Mosque.
I quite agree that the politicians are cashing in on these divisions, but I don’t believe that they created the divisions; the divisions were already there. They are only exploiting it; that is what I see.
You have a very strong organisation that cuts across local government areas in the country. Some of the issues you have raised here appear to be issues that can be addressed through engaging the people. Do you have a planned programme to cause your members to talk to the rural people?
Let me say that as a trade union we have our scope and our limitations. We have gone far in engaging government on the need to have useful constitutional reforms that will make the local government more inconclusive, more vibrant, more busy. We believe from the onset, that as local government workers’ union we are the most qualified people to speak on the issues of local government. This is because we are practically here. By and large, the issue of local government should have been of citizens concern; it should concern the citizens. The local government is the most critical, strategic and the most sensitive tier of government. Unfortunately, Nigerians, being the kind of people that we are, we are less concerned about it; in the same way that we are less concerned about state governments.
So, the concern of citizens is very low generally, in Nigeria. And the capacity of our union cannot sincerely shoulder 100 percent cost of the responsibility. Even with those limitations we decided that we cannot continue to keep quiet. The worst that can happen to the system is when nobody talks about it.
I want to believe that our struggle, our actions brought the issue of local government to the front burner of national discourse. Our actions have made the local government very busy as a tier of government because our actions enlighten citizens on where the problems affecting the local government lies. We have done a lot of things to the extent of engaging the National Assembly, pushing the president to speak up on the ills in the local government and sometimes even the beneficiaries of the bad system in the local government, who are governors of the states to come out clearly and admit that something or everything is wrong with the local government.
For somebody that benefits from the rot to rise up and admit that something is wrong with that system I think our union deserves some kudos. We were in Taraba State and met with the governor. The governor was on air and he appreciated our actions. He clearly told us that before we visited he didn’t actually understand why we were visiting but he quite believes that the local government system needs some reforms. We were in Kano and the governor of Kano State being a former local government staff and chairman, also admitted that all is not well with the local government. I can mention a lot of states like that - in the south-south, in the east, in the west, everywhere in the country nobody is challenging our action or there is no Nigerian that did not believe in what we were saying, including the beneficiaries of the bad system.
Unfortunately, the citizens that ought to come out and join the struggle are not forth-coming. They are not forth-coming because that is the nature of Nigerian citizens.
And that is the reason behind the failure of our democracy. It will surprise you more when you see citizens, indigenes of a particular local government trooping into government houses of the various states in numbers, lobbing for a governor to appoint so and so person as a caretaker chairman, when the Constitution is very clear about leadership at the local government. The responsibility is yours and so, why would you go to the governor to go and lobby? Why? Instead of protesting to the governor? Protest; tell him the truth: This is what the Constitution has said. We need a democratically elected representative; we need people we trust to manage our affairs.
But we see that government is still coming out with to shut out the few that are willing to speak out; is it democracy?
What do you expect? Do you expect them to romance with them? Look! If I wanted to be one of the richest people in Nigeria I would have been the richest man just to compromise the struggle for Local Government autonomy.
Are you okay with the implementation of local government autonomy?
Is there any local government autonomy? There is nothing like local government autonomy yet. What we have achieved so far is the NFIU guidelines and I believe the guideline, largely is the product of our struggle. And you can see how strong the voice of the people can be. This is just a minute section of the society. Only NULGE engaged government on the need to make local government a bit more functional and we have this. If to say when we are engaging government, other groups emerged, citizens joined us; it won’t take us two months to achieve the goal. Things are happening the way they do in Nigeria because of citizens’ failure to engage government and there is no how you can have a functional democracy if the citizens’ participation is low. As a citizen, you should not expect a bed of roses to be provided for you by the leadership because they say politics is about who get what, when, where and how.
Anybody you see in politics has his or her own interest to pursue. He will never think of you as a citizen. That is why some people, like us begin to even believe that the military are more committed in having a more functional Nigeria than the politicians. Look around, any meaningful infrastructure executed in Nigeria was done by the military. Look at all our international airports, look at even the seaports, look at the refineries, the teaching hospitals, most of the vibrant universities- all these were done by the military. Look at Abuja, it was the military that decided that ‘O, we need to have a central capital.’
They cleared the bushy areas and started building a city and within few years, they built a beautiful city. You can’t match Abuja with any city in Nigeria today. So, that means that we have the capacity to do whatever we want to do. But the problem is that we are not getting it right. Or maybe, this presidential system is not working for us. We need to sit down and think as Nigerians, design our own democracy that will fit our own peculiarities. Even the agitation for restructuring, if you restructure Nigeria 100 times it will never change. It is not about the structure, it is about approach.
Could you highlight your key achievements since assumption of office as the NULGE national president?
How I wish you ask some of the members of NULGE this question. I always find it difficult to talk about my achievements because I prefer people to talk about it. However, practically speaking, what just transpired in the Palace of the Galadima Muri (the turbaning) is a testimony of some of the achievements.
Galadima Muri is not a member of NULGE but he saw something positive in us. He said he didn’t know me; I’ve never had any business with him, I’ve never paid any homage on him but because of our action, because of our struggle he was attracted. He is a community leader; he lives with commoners and knows how people are suffering. He also believes the most effective way to address some of these challenges is to have a functional local government; a local government that will be the government of the people, by the people and for the people. So, practically, it is a testimony that we have achieved a lot.