By Polycarp Onwubiko
The so-called Local government autonomy is a farce, deceptively fraudulent and out of sync with the inexorable principles of federal system of government as practiced in the First Republic and in countries all over the world that chose Federal system of government.
In any
Federal system of government there are ONLY TWO TIERS OF GOVERNMENT: Federal
(Central) Government and Regional (State) Governments.
The
issue of local Administration is PURELY within the constitutional jurisdiction
of the Regional Governments as was the case in the First Republic under the
1960 Independence constitution later renamed 1963 Republican Constitution.
It was
the military covertly goaded by the "Caliphate Colonialists and Northern
Political Emirate Establishment " that constituted the supposed "1976
Dasuki Local Government Reform " (without the input of the people from the
southern part of the country) which made Local Administration a TIER OF
GOVERNMENT and made it to be partakers of the monthly Statutory Revenue Sharing
Formula. It was an aberration in a Federation.
To
further implement the covert agenda of the Caliphate Colonialists, they without
input from people of the southern part of the country, (1) Created surplus
local government councils in the North without creating any in the southern
part of the country. For instance, Lagos and Kano states had 20 local
government councils each. Surprisingly, the military of course headed by the
North, created additional 20 local government councils in Kano while Lagos
state retained 20 in spite of the fact that Lagos state has more population
than Kano.
(2) The
military autocrats brazenly and without consulting the southerners, created
Federal Constituencies out of the local government councils . The implication
was that the military planned that when they hand over power to the civilian
administration and National Assembly established, members of both the Senate
and House of Representatives from the North will be more populous that members
from the South so that the north will always have more voting power in all the
Bills, Motions, and Resolutions in the upper and lower Chambers of the National
Legislature at the expense and detriment of the people from the southern part
of the country.
Sadly,
the members from the southern part of the country continued to mope instead of
stridently kick against the lopsided membership of the National Legislature.
Rather than do so for the interest of their people, they resorted to kowtowing
before the Caliphate Colonialists minions in the Legislature to pick crumbs
that fall from the table in terms of "juicy Committee appointments"
to put money into their pockets for selfish ends while their citizens suffer
marginalization and shortchanged in the distribution of the Commonwealth. So
sad indeed!
Polycarp
Onwubiko, political commentator writes from Awka, Anambra States.
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