SIR: A few days ago, the Senate unanimously asked the Federal Government to halt the statutory allocation of funds to local government areas whose chairmen and councillors were not democratically elected. The resolution of the Senate, if heeded, will affect the 21 local government areas in Anambra State, which are being governed by unelected officials appointed by the state government.
The last local government election in Anambra State was conducted at the twilight of the administration of Governor Peter Obi in November 2014. Before I forget, it was the only local government election conducted in the eight years of the Obi administration, which ran the local governments with caretaker committees, comprising of handpicked officials. While Obi conducted local government election once, his profligate successor, Willie Obiano, did not conduct any throughout his eight years in office. Like Obi, Obiano unlawfully ran the local government system with unelected officials, wearing the bogus garb of transition councils (TCs).
In three months’ time, the incumbent governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo would clock two years in office. As of the time of writing this article, there was nothing on ground in the state to suggest that Soludo will conduct local government election before the second anniversary of his administration on March 16, 2024. The Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) is the body legally empowered to conduct local government election in the state. From the inception of Soludo’s administration till date, ANSIEC has been comatose.
While presenting the 2023 Anambra State Budget, tagged “Anambra State Budget of Acceleration” before the House of Assembly in November last year (2022), the professor of economics announced that he would soon present to the House for consideration, amendments to the ANSIEC law 2007 as part of moves towards conducting credible council polls. One year after, this has not materialised.
Just like Obi and Obiano, Professor Soludo swore on the day of his inauguration to uphold the constitution of Nigeria. Section 7 (1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) guarantees the system of local government by democratically elected local government councils. The same constitution makes it an obligation for the government of every state to ensure their existence under a law, which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.
Regrettably, Soludo has followed the path of his predecessors, running the councils with unelected officials, tagged “transition chairmen,” in contravention of the same constitution, which he swore to uphold, and in flagrant disobedience of a subsisting judgment of a competent court, which declared that the Anambra State Government has no powers to appoint officials to govern the local government areas.
Finally, if the Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mba who is barely six months in office is planning to hold local government election in two months’ time, nothing stops Soludo from holding council polls in Anambra, latest by the second quarter of next year. The local government is the tier of government closest to the people. The most acceptable definition of democracy often credited to former American President, Abraham Lincoln is “government of the people by the people and for the people.”
For democracy to yield the expected dividends in the country, it must be entrenched at the grassroots. It is the right of the people to decide who governs them at every level in a democracy. A democratised local government system in Anambra State will boost the local economy and assist immensely in arresting the scourge of insecurity in the state.
Chekwube Nzomiwu, a development communicator and political scientist, wrote from Awka.
