The #EndSARS uprising will go down in history as one of the greatest reawakening of all times. In as much as it brought with it unintended consequence, it imbued many Nigerians with the ability to critically analyse the Nigerian questions as well as so many other worrisome questions necessary to our shared progress as a nation.
One of these question, is how to situate Nigeria’s subnational leaders (Governors and LGA chairmen) in the broad spectrum of Nigeria’s structural cum leadership dynamics and how, for that matter, they have aided or retarded national growth, especially since virtually every blame for Nigeria’s failure is directed at the federal government. As Napoleon Bonaparte once opined, the greatest tragedy that will befall a nation is for leaders to get away with blinding the masses to their incompetencies so that they (the masses) end up blaming everybody for their problems except the leaders themselves. This is very true if one observes the Abuja-ly directed rage of our youths during this historic #EndSARS protest against the excesses of the now proscribed SARS as well as police brutality and very obvious failure of governance.
Although it has been argued that the Southern states beared larger chunks of the SARS barbarism, the failure of governance and other acts of police brutality are crystal clear everywhere one turns; from Nasarawa to Kaduna, Borno to Ekiti and Bayelsa to Enugu. For instance, Nigeria’s rural communities that use to be hubs for food and plenty have been upended into beggarly abodes. Thanks to the near absence of governance manifesting in the form of insecurity, forcing farmers to abandon their farms or live with the possibility of falling to the sophisticated weapons of killer herdsmen or be taken by kidnappers. Those bold enough to ride the risks and still farm have to grapple with the dearth of infrastructure or any deliberate policy of government to support the rural economy and pull them out of poverty.
One interesting phenomenon that we located in all this, is the tendency of everyone to put all the blames for the outrageous and we dare say unforgivable existence of large swarths of ungoverned spaces, widespread lack of development, one of the highest rate of out of school children, high infant and maternal morality rates, hunger and hopelessness etc on the central government, leaving state and LGA leaders to do as the Hausa’s will say ‘eat their dogs without bothering to singe off the hair from its skin’. We believe a further study is required to well and truly unearth how governors and their lackeys at the LGA’s were able to sell Nigerians that dummy, but most interesting, is how they were able to keep watering it into this monster it has become.
Nigerians will not quite appreciate the depth of misappropriation and brazen theft of our shared income by Subnational leaders until they have an idea what has accrued to their states of origins since the return of democracy in 1999. We urge Nigerians to request BudgiT to furnish them with some of the details of the humongous funds that states and LGA’s all over Nigeria have earned from the centre, including their IGR and internal/external borrowing for effects. I bet it will leave us bewildered.
While we are still residing in the premises of the long con preferred against all of us by governors as we direct all our animus to the FG for the near absence of development and order in the land, the Subnational chiefs are in Dreamland, looting the states dry knowing fully well that they’ll get away with it. One illuminating constant from this is that, whenever there’s breakdown of security, our governors and their stooges at the LGA’s quickly point you to the centre. They tell you the president is the commander in chief etc. but you will never hear them blame the FG nor will there be any need to, whenever they require the use of Nigeria’s security men to achieve sinister motives like election rigging and harassment of political opponents.
It is safe to conclude that LGA’s have become much more than just out posts for the interests of Governors. Our state governors have succeeded in reducing the third tier of government originally designed to bring government closer to the people not only to their conduit pipe for mindless looting, but also their ATM machines for when they go broke. The constitutional jobs of the council chairmen have being hijacked and their selection process a mere justification of the flittering away of their resources. This is why in most cases, these Governors prefer to work with their appendages in the name of caretaker committees.
The situation is so bad that, even if we agree to play along with the state governors and continue to direct all our blames at the FG for virtually everything that’s wrong in the country, there’s still the little matter of the state and LGA’s IGR. Who should we blame for the diversion of the largely unaccounted IGR of almost all the LGAs? Surely not the federal government again or is it? Who should be held responsible for the absence of leadership in the rural areas? How do we explain to a growing child in the rural area that the FG is responsible for the death of his mother because the local clinic lacked the common aspirin that could have saved her life?
The local governments are comatose! This point can never be overemphasized, no thanks to the emperors masquerading as democratic governors. And now more than ever, is the time to revisit the question of LGA autonomy. This is because, as our LGA’s are currently operated, none can embark on a solid road construction, health centre or even a classrooms, not to talk of providing pipe borne water which clearly, has become something of a rocket science. If you ask the council chairmen what they are doing with their statutory allocations (as most of their IGR has been taken away), the few honest ones will tell you they’re just a means to get the money to their Ogas at the top.
Do we talk about the clamour for autonomy of both the State Houses of Assembly and the Judiciary for which the president has issued executive orders in support of? Do you want to hear it from us that speakers of the Houses of Assembly are mere extension of the powers of the Governor doing ‘yo man’ job for him, rubber stamping all his careful plans for a heist of the public treasury. How many Governors have allowed this arm of government to freely elect their leaders? From the selection, sorry election process, the governors ensure that no ‘Nay’ voice makes it to the Assembly. Far inferior numbers have been known to impeach speakers backed by higher members before and not too long ago, a state Assembly supposed to be made up of 24 lawmakers ended up with only 9 lawmakers as the remaining 14 were swallowed up in river of power between a governor and his erstwhile political benefactor, leaving their constituencies without representation.
It’s in this our Obodo Nigeria that we have seen governors swear in leaders of the House in the wee hours of the night with some of them, in their briefs. Can we boast of just one House of Assembly that’s truly doing their constitutional duty of checkmating the executives? In most cases, lawmaker must brief the Speaker on the bill he/she intends to present to the house and the Speaker will in turn, seek express approval of the governor before such a bill is allowed to be presented.
The rot in the judicial system is a story for another day but let us quickly remind you that less than 4 months ago, a governor refused to confirm the highest judicial officer in a state in the South South part of the country, because the “Yes have it” had it that her state of origin is questionable.
The events of the past few days have further exposed state governors as the major enemies of the people. Palliatives meant to be shared to the downtrodden to cushion the harsh economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were hoarded in warehouses. From Jos to Jalingo, from Osun to Awka, the story is the same. What do you think Governors have been doing with federal government allocation if they can be as heartless as to hoard and refuse to deliver common food items made available to them by the Coalition Against COVID-19, CACOVID to the people? We will let you figure that one out.
In closing, it is imperative to note that no one is absolving the federal government of blame for the rot that Nigeria has become nor will we ever attempt to do so. However, it has become more than necessary in light of the current renaissance, to open the eyes of Nigerians to our collective enemies, to let us know that they don’t only reside in Abuja but are as close to us as the LGA capital. As young men, we remember LGA’s delivering rural infrastructure. Today, you can hardly find an LGA where even a block or two of drainage is constructed by the LGA talk more of roads or classrooms.
Nigerians will not fully appreciate the length of the con preferred against our collective growth by subnational leaders until we take more than a passing interest on the activities of state and LGA executives. That’s why villages have now resorted to pooling resources together to construct classrooms and employ teachers to disadvantage their children with poor education, while the Dariyes, Gojes, Kalus, Akalas and virtually every Nigerian past and present leader furnish the west with lucre meant for our collective development, reducing the rest of us to the sheeple that the world think we are today because we just _dey Siddon look_ as our collective patrimony is carted away, hidden in tribal songs and religious chants…
