SIR: A simple peek into most of the local government secretariats in Nigeria, especially those in the rural areas, would leave even a neutral observer alarmed at the depth of neglect and levity visited on that most crucial rung of Nigeria‘s increasingly foggy system of government.
The constitutional conception of the local government system was aided immensely by the need to take government to the grassroots and ensure that rural dwellers get their own bit and play their own part in governance through the local government system. If this constitutional conception was prescient then, it has proved even prophetic in the midst of the governmental quagmire the country is currently enmeshed in.
In a country where most citizens are rural dwellers, there has been an abysmal failure in addressing the needs of its rural citizenry. This has in turn left large numbers of the Nigerian populace struggling in the rural areas and facing a scandalous inadequacy of basic amenities. The immediate result is to be seen in the constantly increasing rural-urban migration and the deplorable conditions of life in the rural areas.
In a country where people at the grassroots are sought to be carried along only in times of electioneering by dubious political players, the dereliction which has reduced the local councils to dysfunctional contraption can be blamed on both the Federal and State Governments.
Empirical evidence reveals that most Governors are most uncomfortable with functional and virile local governments having any semblance of independence. From their allocations to their elections, what usually comes into play is the proverbial voice of Jacob and hands of Esau; and it is the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians that are the worse for it. It is also common knowledge that the Local Government System provides employment to thousands of workers in Nigeria. The sore point, however, is that the same system has also become a haven for all guises of ghost workers. Again it is the most vulnerable Nigerians that are the worse for it.
There can be no equitable distribution of the dividends of democracy unless the Local Government System is strengthened and repositioned to achieve some measure of autonomy and accountability to the very people they were constitutionally envisaged to serve.
Kenechukwu Obiezu,
Abuja
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