Local government autonomy now!

Today the only accounting officers we recognize are the president and governors. Nobody seems to remember local govern-ment chairmen to the extent that one begins to wonder if there is any need to create such offices in the first place. Leaving the state house of assemblies to exclusively decide the fate of the LGCs is […]

Today the only accounting officers we recognize are the president and governors. Nobody seems to remember local govern-ment chairmen to the extent that one begins to wonder if there is any need to create such offices in the first place. Leaving the state house of assemblies to exclusively decide the fate of the LGCs is one of those grave mistakes conceived in our constitution which should not be there. Yes, a mistake that is bent on hindering development at the grassroots. A mistake that is still there to inflict more sufferings on the rural Inhabitants, whose hands are inadequate to draw the attention of the national and state accounting officers, yet deprived the only opportunity of taking their grievances to the chairmen which are the closest to the people. It is a loophole which I believed our early constitution compilers will want us to fill.  
 If the local governments are truly recognized as one of the tiers of government, then they should be autonomous.
Today most states have failed to conduct local government elec-tion for about three years now. What the local governments has today are ceremonial cronies who dare not opposed any direc-tive from the state governors, regardless of its implication on their community.
As investigation reveals the inability of the state government to pay salaries with their internally generated revenue without relying on the federal allocation stir most state governors to manoeuvre ways to increase their revenue in order to be independent of the federal revenue which is term as a healthy development by many.  
If the state govern-ments can today seek independent of the federal allocations then I see no reason why the local govern-ment can’t seek same from states.
But how can we achieve this without granting the local government its autonomy? How can we realize this without including the local government in the exclusive legislative list?
One may ask; it seems I’m quite pessimistic about the future of our local governments. No I’m not, but on the contrary my vision for a new viable local government is very positive. I see a nation were electorates are allow to elect their chairmen in the same mode they elect their Governors and president. I see a society where people can easily hold the leaders accountable for their stewardship. I see a society where dividends of democracy reach the grassroots from the grassroots itself not necessary from the national or state levels.

 Ahmed Saddam,
<[email protected]