Polycarp Onwubiko
It would amount to sheer waste of time for certain political interests to take on the Governor of Anambra state, Prof C C Soludo on failure or tardiness to conduct local government council election. Although at the inception of his mandate he made a comment on the local government council election which would come later in the course of his administration.
It is an indisputable fact and stark reality that no Federalist Governor would attach interest in the conduct of local government council election because the past and present Nigeria presidents refused to address the issue of True Federalism which goes with the Restructuring of the lopsided Federation. Until the country is prepared for Restructuring governance where the inexorable principles of federal system of government will be sacred and sacrosanct, people should forget about local government council election.
Why should I say so? Nigeria
can never be taken seriously until Restructuring the lopsided Federation takes
place because the Unitary-Federal contraption in place favour the northern part
of the country at the expense and detriment of the southern part of the
country. In Federations the world over even in the First Republic with the principles
of federal system of government in the 1960 Independence constitution, local
administration was within the constitutional authority of the respective
Regional Governments. In other words, in Federations, there are only TWO TIERS
OF GOVERNMENT: the Federal Government and the State (or Regional) Governments.
The gross anomalies and
aberration in Nigeria where the military apparently teleguided by the
"Northern Political Emirate Establishment" introduced THERE TIERS OF
GOVERNMENT ostensibly to favour the northern part of the country through
funneling humongous public funds via the monthly Statutory Revenue Allocation.
The deft strategy was the 1976 Dasuki local government council Reform which
recommended three tiers of government and immediately followed with the
creation of surplus local government councils in the northern part of the
country without doing same in the southern part of the country.
In military regime, nobody
would speak out to condemn aberrations particularly on the issue of Federalism.
To prove that the military regime was teleguided by the northern traditional
and political chieftains in the creation of surplus local government councils
in the North, the military regime did not care to make consultation nationwide; in other words the military autocracy did not
consult with all the ethnic nationalities because it was a game to shortchange
other ethnic nationalities in terms of revenue sharing and more importantly the
composition of the National Assembly in the planned civilian administration.
Having gotten surplus local
government councils in the North, the aberrant military jackboots proceeded to
use the local government councils as basis for creating Federal CONSTITUENCIES
with the result that the north would have majority members in the National
Assembly. The brazen faced ploy was that during the plenary in the National
Legislature, the majority members from the North would always carry the day in
the voting for all laws, policies and programmes that affect the entire country
irrespective of the feelings of the people from southern part of the country.
The particular military regime
gave the north two great advantages namely: (1) humongous amount in the monthly
Statutory Revenue Allocation (2) Greater Federal Constituencies to have absolute
majority in the National Assembly at the expense and detriment of the
southerners in the House of Representatives in addition to majority members in
the Senate going by the more states created in the North. North has seven
states while Southeast has only five states. By extension, the number of local
government councils in the Southeast is equal to the number of local government
councils in Kano state alone. One Nigeria indeed; who is fooling whom?
This horrendous scenario is at
the root of the northern Moslems particularly the alleged "Fulani feudal
oligarchy" who never hide their strident kicking against Restructuring the
lopsided Federation because it would truncate the Islamization and Fulanization
agenda boldly practiced by the brazen faced dictator, the immediate past
president of Nigeria, Buhari. The outright rejection of multi policing system
(aka State Police) which is an integral part of Restructuring governance by the
this phalanx is because their foot soldiers: the terrorists masquerading as
herdsmen from the Sahel region of West Africa on territorial expansion and
ethnic cleansing binge, would be stopped in their track thus truncating the
Islamization agenda to "throw the Koran into the Atlantic ocean",
according to their forefathers who straddled Nigeria as solely belonging to
them.
Therefore, people who are
expecting Governor Soludo to conduct local government council election should
prevail on president Tinubu to kickstart immediate Restructuring of the country
by convoking National Conference of selected representatives of ethnic
nationalities to brainstorm on how Nigerians can live together or practice
CON-FEDERATION because it has become very clear that the basis of unity is not
there going by the unguarded utterances from the Moslem north.
State Governors should be
handling the local government councils as they wish so that the monthly statutory
allocation could be well managed for the overall socioeconomic development of
the state. As State Police is being mulled by president Tinubu, time has come
for a review of Statutory Revenue Allocation to make the states have greater
percentage of the monthly statutory allocation above the federal government.
More important, there should be ONLY two way sharing of the monthly Statutory
Revenue Allocation: Federal Government and State Governments implementing TWO
TIERS OF GOVERNMENT as was in the First Republic realistic principles of
federal system of government.
State Governors should have the
liberty on how to manage the local government councils, even as they are
equally at liberty to create more 100 local government councils. The local
government councils should be called "Local Administration"; in the
First Republic they were called "Divisional Administrative Division, DAD. That grave injustice, inequity and unfair
practice whereby the north has surplus local government councils with humongous
amount in the monthly statutory allocation should stop. Ironically, the
supposed aim of the military dictator who created surplus local government councils
in the north was truncated. His objective was for the people of the local
government council areas (traditional and political chieftains) to deploy the
humongous amount from the monthly Statutory Revenue Allocation to address the
poor situation in the education and health sector in the north.
Sadly, it was observed that the
monthly Statutory Revenue Allocation to the surplus local government councils
are brazenly looted even as members of the traditional rulers’ families are
registered in the payroll of the local government councils. Consequently, in
the North, education and health sectors are the worst compared to what obtain
in the southern part of the country. The humongous amount of monthly statutory
allocation shares are allegedly squandered in cultural activities and religious
pilgrimage at the expense of the socioeconomic welfare of the masses who are
suffering multi-dimensional poverty.
Polycarp Onwubiko, media commentator
writes from Awka, Anambra State.
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