The nearest government to the people is the Local Government, it is said to be government at the grassroots that is meant to be accessible to their people. They are not meant to be difficult to access. This was what I had in mind until recently.
Here in Nigeria, you have to know somebody to see a local government chairman. It is not a government of the common people. It is an organized political party at the grassroots.
Any time you plan seeing your local government chairman, make sure you don’t have any other thing doing for that day, or for the week. But if it is important that you see him, the next question would be “Who do you know”, now here is a list of people you must know if you want to see your local government chairman, His PA (Personal Assistant), A councillor, the SAs (Special Assistants), the Vice chairman, your ward chairman. If you do not know anyone in this group, then you must have a social status that could open the chairman’s office when you are there.
While you wait at the reception waiting to see your chairman, you see ward chairmen, councillors going in and out, and what you are continually told is that the chairman is in a meeting, and when you are tired of waiting, you probably have to look for another alternative.
Every local government chairman in Enugu State is busy in their offices, but nothing is practically going on in their local government area, LGs are practically doing nothing, there is no doubting the fact that there is a constitutional impediment to their structure and responsibility, yet even with the little that is expected of them, they are not giving us any reason to pursue the course of local government autonomy.
