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By Polycarp Onwubiko

 

Daily Sun Editorial February 9, 2024 captioned: "Doubtful disbursement of N40 trn allocation to LGs", is patently very embarrassing and totally unbecoming of senior journalists of newspaper eminently perceived as the "Elites" of the society required to be versatile in all aspects of governance and types of systems of government.

Editorial writers are not expected to be fumbling in matters of governance and styles of systems of government. According to the caption of the Editorial, the members of the Editorial Board want the 36 state governors from 1999 along with the past and present chairmen/transition chairmen of the local government councils in the country to account for the N40 trn allocation to the councils. What an inane and insane reasoning?

Excerpts of the relevant potion of the Editorial read as follows:

"... Therefore we call for urgent reform of the local government system to make it more efficient and effective. The time has come to grant financial autonomy to the councils to manage the affairs of the councils...

*We believe that having efficient governance at the local government level will immediately curb the rising insecurity, hunger and poverty across the country."

Laughable indeed for the puerile and preposterous reasoning of the elite who are expected to be versed in the principles of federal system of government as practiced the world over.

Starting from the flawed position of "security", what has chairmen of local government councils to do with the security of their respective jurisdiction? Is not security authority with the inspector general of police in Abuja in the muddle of federal system of government? If the Governors of the states cannot give order to the Commissioner of police in the states, who are the chairmen of local government councils to give order to the Divisional police officers, DPOs in the localities?

In terms of hunger, is it the within the constitutional mandate of the chairmen of local government councils to feed the people or do they have farms to cultivate food items even as the terrorists masquerading as herdsmen drive their herds into farmlands to eat up the produce while slaughtering the villagers who raise alarm and protest against the invading Islamic insurgency masquerading as herdsmen while the police look away because of orders from "the above" not to touch the Islamic invaders.

It is therefore shocking that Daily Sun Editorial Board members close their eyes on the fundamentally and fraudulent principles in the 1999 Constitution where local government council was made a TIER OF GOVERNMENT which is a monstrous aberration in the federal system of government constitution as obtained in the 1960/1963 Independence cum Republican Constitutions.

In other words, federal system of government contains ONLY TWO TIERS OF GOVERNMENT viz: Central (federal) and State (or Regional government as was in the 1960 Independence constitution) government. It was the aberrant military regime that polluted the principles of federal system of government and created local government councils as THIRD TIER OF GOVERNMENT.

The faux pas was committed by the military jackboots who didn't reckon with the principles of federal system of government as obtained the world over ostensibly to favour the northern part of the country where surplus local government councils were carved out of the then existing local government councils and make the local government to be included in the monthly Statutory Revenue Allocation so that huge quantum of funds would be funnelled to the northern part of the country at the expense and detriment/brazen marginalization of the states in the southern part of the country.

This gross anomalies and brazen injustice have been at the core of the nationwide clarion calls for the immediate Restructuring of the lopsided Federation for ethnic balancing for the equitable sharing of the commonwealth. This is a simple first year course in the department of political science in the university.

It is therefore very exasperating that Editorial Board of a reputable newspaper could not understand this matter and lustily join hands with well-meaning Nigerians in the call for immediate Restructuring of the country with multi policing system as obtained in countries that practice federal system of government.

 

Polycarp Onwubiko, Media Commentator And Public Policy Analyst, Wrote From Awka, Anambra State.