The debate on ARGUMENTS AGAINST FINANCIAL AUTONOMY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS prompted me to comment under the above caption. I won’t be saying anything new but just rejigging our consciousness to enable those interested to put the issues in proper perspective. Local government autonomy under the current prevailing political structure is bound or prone to fail, just as most of the state governments have failed the governed in the recent past years till date.
The present local government administration setting is kind of skewed to suit manipulation in the politics of federal and state government dichotomy. Also, it is more of a platform to pilter the commonwealth by local government officials and for the state governments to fraudulently access more money than to facilitate bringing development to the grassroots.
Come with me in this recall. The local government administration system was a creation of the colonial masters. They put the structure in place to make the job of their colonial administration easier down the hierarchy. That was the era of the DO (Divisional Officers) who were trained oyinbo technocrats. When the colonial masters were winding down, indigenes who understudied them and trained over the years took over. That was how Baba, Chief Arokaodare of Ijero-Ekiti was the one who succeeded the white man in Ekiti and the likes of Chief Augustus Adebayo of Igbara-Oke served as a DO in some parts of the old western region at some points before rising to the prestigious position of Head of Service in the old western state. Hope I got the history right.
Until the era of pedestrian partisan politics crept in, which had now relegated the noble and efficient local government administration system of the past to the background, competent and responsible tested technocrats were in charge of the local government administration in Nigeria. Most of them will do better jobs than the calibre of governors that the Nigerian democracy has produced in the recent past to date.
For an example, the legendary principal of the Methodist Boys High School, Lagos in the 1960s and 1970s was a councilor in his Ifaki Ward and my beloved father who was a national leader of NUT in the early 1970s served as a councilor in his Ifaki Ward too in the late 1950s and early 1960s. These were career teachers gainfully employed. It was the time when communities put their best feet forward. When political job took them out of their career duty, they came back to the classroom after they were done.
What do we have today? Partisan politics is now a “profession” in Nigeria. Communities hardly choose their representatives anymore. The political political system has incapacitated them by limiting the options opened to them. It is the person that the godfather and political chieftains throw at them that they settle for because the general election is also unreliable.
Compare the profile of the present set of councillors to the Awolowo era. Put the resume of Adeyemi Lawson when he was the Mayor of the City Hall – Lagos Island Council and that of High Chief Alex Olu Ajayi as the Chairman of Ado LGA beside any of the LCDA boss of today and you expect the same level of performance, quality administration and good leadership!
In the first instance, election to all tiers of government to various offices in Nigeria is no longer a call to service. It is no more considered an honour but a jackpot! It is not about a ward putting their best foot forward. The majority of the contestants are unemployed and desperate for where they can make a living and have their own bite out of the appropriated national cake.
Tell me, when someone who lacks integrity or conscience knows that there are better and more qualified hands to represent the community and the godfather gave him or her the slot. Who is the fellow going to be loyal to? The masses that didn’t elect him/her or the benefactor and self-serving caucus that put the beneficiary there?
The qualification for local government appointments or most political positions these days is now a reward for inclination to do the bidding of the clique in control of the political structure. Many of the beneficiaries don’t have a second veritable vocational address or contented means of survival when the political employment contract is over. Accountability is near zero in most of the local government offices. If you give those calibre of people an autonomy over local government affairs, then forget about progressive development completely. “Won kan gbe eran din-din ti ologbo ni”.
Before autonomy can be ceded to the local government, the bar of quality representation from the councillor to the chairman must be raised. Capacity building is essential for all cadres of the rustic current LGA kleptocratic civil servants. Good quality governance at all tiers is a serious business. In all, the quality of governance at the state level will determine the quality of staffing at the local government levels, too. When you have a very corrupt and incompetent person as the governor or head of the government, then forget about best practices at the local government level. If the head is rotten, what do you expect of the lower parts of the body.
The bigger the pie, the better for the governor who is interested in who is in charge of the local government funds. With the hugely monetised electoral process, cornering funds for the next election starts immediately when a new governor comes on board. They can’t allow anyone who will not play ball to get positions at the local government level. In essence and in the final analysis, there would be no autonomy in the real sense of it at the local government administration level. The harmless poor masses shall continue yo be shortchanged. “Malu ti ko ni iru ni won.”
Restructuring of Nigeria, the fundamental political and governing structures, becomes inevitable if we really want to get things right as a progressive nation. Anything short of this amounts to motion without any movement. The country will just continue to roll like the person sitting on the spinned chair of a barber.
May God help Nigeria.
May God help Ekiti
