By Polycarp Onwubiko
Vanguard Saturday edition, July 13, 2024 conducted public opinion poll (POP) over the supreme court judgment on the so-called "local government council autonomy". Haba, it became clear that over 90 percent of Nigerians are starkly ignorant about how federal system of government works. The lamentable observation is that many people have short memory pertaining to the sociopolitical affairs of the country. It is so bad indeed.
Out of
the 24 respondents in the POP, only 5 knew about the proper working of the
federal system of government and could recall the 1960/1963 Federal
Constitution which properly made local administration the SOLE responsibility
of the Regional Governments since Federal Government had no business running
local government. In other words, in Federations the world over including
Nigeria in the First Republic, there are TWO TIERS OF GOVERNMENT viz: State
Governments (or Regional Governments as was in the First Republic in Nigeria).
It was
due to deft deviousness geared towards manipulating and marginalizing other
ethnic nationalities in Nigeria that the military teleguided by the supposed
"Northern Political Emirate Establishment and Fulani Feudal Oligarchy”
that pride itself by throwing its weight about creating the ugly impression
that they are positioned to the deciding how Nigeria should be governed that
created THREE TIERS OF GOVERNMENT quite contrary to the practice of federal
system of government the world over.
Only
two of the respondents in the POP that are dancing between the two opposing
views. The most agonizing thing is that lawyers who are supposed to have at
their fingertips the principles that guide two systems of government viz:
Federal system and unitary system, exhibited crass ignorance about the workings
of federal system of government. The question is: what sort of university
education is being acquired in Nigeria?
The old
timer politicians like Bode George of Lagos state surprisingly hailed president
Tinubu (not surprising of course due to the evil seed of tribalism) but turned
around to warn him to follow the so-called "local government councils
autonomy" with the immediate Restructuring of the lopsided Federation. That
is brazen-faced double standard.
Restructuring
the lopsided Federation means that local government management will return to
the state governments as was in the First Republic where local administration
resided with the then Regional Governments. Sorry for Nigeria in view of the
havoc which ethnoreligious calculations has wrecked the entirety which makes
"Nigeria Unity" an optical illusion and daydream never to be
realized.
The
Supreme Court judgment has to be dumped into the scrap heap of history and immediate
Restructuring of the country commenced. One knowledgeable respondent wondered
what will happen to the "Local Development Centers" which the very
Tinubu as Governor of Lagos state created when he wrestled the 'powerful'
president Olusegun Obasanjo when he was fumbling with the ignorance of the
principles of federal system of government pertaining to the place of local
administration in a Federal system of government and seized the monthly
Statutory allocation to the local government councils in Lagos state until the
very Supreme Court judges declared that the federal government should have no
business on the issue of local administration.
But
sadly, the judges became timorous and balked from equally declaring that the
monthly statutory allocation to the local government councils should be
abolished because Revenue Sharing Formula should have been between the Federal
Government and State governments. State Governments should have the sole
concern to create the number of local administration units as they want going
by the circumstances in the respective states.
This is
the simple principle undergirding Federal system of government as practiced the
world over. Nigerian transactional political leaders should stop groping in the
dark and more importantly stop pandering to the inanities and dubious
preferences of the "Northern Political Emirate Establishment and Fulani
Feudal Oligarchy" who have held the socioeconomic and political growth and
development of Nigeria to ransom. Enough is enough if Nigeria will join the
civilized countries of the world and uplift the living standard of living
people.
Polycarp
Onwubiko, political analyst, writes from Awka, Anambra State
Post a Comment