By Ehichioya Steve Odion
The present acting local government chairmen in Edo State who assumed office through undemocratic means that has no space in the Nigeria's democracy may not be accountable to the people after all.
It is still very fresh in the minds of Edo residents and Nigerians in general, the commando style in which the acting chairmen got to where they are today. If you call it broad day overthrow of elected government by civilian coupists, you may not be wrong.
This ugly incident was made possible with the help of recruited thugs who were allegedly paid to do the dirty job while the people they were elected to govern watched helplessly.
Looking at the atmosphere since this democratically elected local government chairmen were forcefully removed from their duty posts, the goververnance at the grassroots level in the state has been on a steep fall. The people whose interest they were to superintend over have been at a loss, confused and wondering when current political ginmandering will stop and be replaced with such that respects the verdict of the ballot as contained in the he Nigerian Constitution.
There's no gainsaying the fact that the present unconstitutional order at the local government council in Edo was planted by those who should know better, the Edo State House of Assembly members for purposes of serving some mundane peculiarly interest and blind party loyalty.
The attempts to illegally remove the former People's Democratic Party's chairmen from office following their party's electoral defeat during the September 21, 2024 governorship poll that saw the triumph of Monday Okpepholo as governor, was warning from the Attorney General of the Federations Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi who declared the suspension of the local government chairmen illegal.
Despite this intervention, the house propelled by the executive branch of the State government threw caution overboard and ran amock, summerilly suspending all eighteen local government chairmen in the state in one fell swoop.
The confusion that was caused by the illegal dismantling of the third tier of government in the state has continued to rear its ugly head across all the local government Councils, because in many cases things are not rightly done according to laid down procedures simply due to the faulty system already enthroned.
The question that is begging for answer from the people of Edo State right now is whether the local government is actually receiving their monthly allocations directly from the Federation Account or still through the state government as usual. Because looking at the activities at the local government council it is very clear that the huge allocation coming to the respective local government's purses is not reflecting in the jobs being executed by the chairmen.
Just recently I heard on radio that one acting local government chairman was praising himself for clearing refuse across markets in his council area.
To him, that is one achievement worth celebrating. Similarly, another local government chairman was being advertised on the social media for donating a mini generator to pulp water from borehole in one of the primary schools. Is this not laughable? When ordinarily the internally generated revenue could cater for these minor things. In this case where are they now channelling the federal allocation to?
Meanwhile, the song you see them sing these days is renewed hope agenda while in the real sense, they are openly spreading poverty amongst the innocent people struggling to survive the onslaught orchestrated by the mismanagement of the resources meant for them.
The implications of mismanaging resources meant for the development of the people of Edo State at the grassroots is unquantifiable. When the money is not properly channelled, it denies the people access to quality health care, education and general well-being.
What Edo people have seen, especially those at the grassroots has been business as usual as no meaningful projects is being delivered. One wonders what the monthly allocation coming into the councils' coffers including the internally generated revenue is being used for.
One wonders why Nigeria's socio-economic and political developments seem being on the reverse. Our political evolution has rather than improve, taken a nosedive. It's heartbreaking that the first generation of local government chairmen produced under the present republic in Edo as in elsewhere besides being duly elected across different political parties, performed extremely very well.
To tell how less acrimonious the polity was, a chairman that was elected on the platform of All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, in Egor local government which was in opposition then was declared the best performing local government chairman in Edo State. Today what do we see in the so called elected or appointed local government chairmen, self enrichment has become the rule rather than the exception due largely to the complete absence of necessary checks from the legislative branch of government.
Another question now is that these present so called acting Chairmen who connived to impeached their former bosses at the prompting of the State executive to buy loyalty and patronage, can one comfortably say they are enjoying their offices because they account to no one except the few who foisted them on the people.
The believe of the people is that the chairmen will rather choose to be loyal and accountable to those who helped them to achieve that position they never dreamt of in life to get. While on the other hand they may not be held accountable by the people since they were not the ones elected by them.
As it is now can we just allow few political actors to continue to subject the entire people to this abnormal situation without them being challenged? Or can we just succumb to what Nigerians now described as state capture?
There is no doubt it will be very difficult to come out of this present debacle we have found ourselves. I also think that with enough courage by those who truly believe in Nigeria and democracy, we can overcome and conquer this unruly attitude of the so called political leaders in our dear country.
Let us not be discouraged by the attitude of some youths who have decided to sell their birth rights and enslave themselves to the politicians by allowing themselves to be used for thuggery in every political contest. Ironically, these youths have got nothing to show for disorganizing the political system. Rather, they bear the sufferings with their loved ones with smile.
It will not be out of place to remind acting Local Government Chairmen who benefited from this political fraud that one day history will remember them for the inglorious role they played in the Nigeria democratic setting even though they accumulated so much wealth to themselves.
What mustn't go unrewarded is the bare face act of betrayal committed against their former principals in office. The question here is, can you be trusted next time by those who witnessed what you did to your fellow man?
The only way we can have a democracy that is thriving at the local government level is when real local government autonomy is put in place when elections would be conducted and supervised by INEC and received their statutory financial allocation from the Federation Account without any interference from the state governors. Not these present charades we are experiencing across the country in the name of organizing local government elections where Chairmen are still tied to the apron strings of governors.
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