By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
A non governmental, non profit organisation, Igbo-Eze North progressives has applauded the Supreme Court ruling conferring financial autonomy on government councils in Nigeria.
In a statement, signed by one of the elders of the group, Dr Mathias Omeh, the forum which supports youth empowerment, poverty alleviation and other socio-economic responsibilities, described the apex court ruling as an unprecedented paradigm shift in local government system in the country.
The group said the financial autonomy Nigeria’s 774 council areas now enjoy by virtue of the court ruling is a complete departure from the old era where LG chairmen were mere puppets and errand boys remote-controlled by their capricious governors.
“Those governors with insatiable avarice for acquisition were suspected to be pulling out humongous amounts of money on a monthly basis from Local government allocations, thereby making it difficult for the council chairmen to have sufficient funds to carry out appreciable projects.
“The Supreme court has ushered us into a new era where no Local government chairman has any excuse not to do well”, the group maintained.
The group expressed optimism that the new development will
enable council chairmen take on their statutory responsibilities, and in so doing lessen the burdens on its shoulders.
“Prior to this time, what was obtainable was a system that encouraged state governors to allegedly chop out a larger chunk of local government allocations and give only a paltry sum to the chairmen who in turn would walk away with the leftover having the effrontery that governors being accomplices in the heist wouldn’t have the moral justification to ask them for accountability.
“As a result of this ugly development that has lingered for a long time, infrastructural facilities in the rural areas have continued to deteriorate as apparently occasioned by paucity of funds at the disposal of council chairmen” the group added.
Citing Igbo- Eze North local government area of Enugu State as an example, the group rued that prior to the Supreme Court ruling, what was obtained in most council areas across the federation was an abysmal infrastructural dilapidation that has endured for years due to financial strangulation by state governors.
“Government schools in Igbo Eze North, for instance have been abandoned for many years. The ones that are functional are only dependent on community efforts. We live in a society where poor farmers contribute money to fix schools and roads for themselves.
“It’s one of the few Local government areas in these modern days in which you can still find schools where children study under perforated roofs and walls burrowed by rodents. Whenever it rains, you would see them scampering from one side of the classroom to the other.
“At the end, they go home drenched. The moment they vacate the school, the rodents would take over the next minute” the group lamented.
It cautioned state governors not to torpedo the new lease of life the apex court has given to council areas through obnoxious laws in connivance with state House of Assemblies.
“There is the possibility of state governors using the instrumentality of Assembly members(stooges) to make laws that might inhibit the Local government autonomy from yielding the expected results.
“The Progressives group advises both the governors, local government chairmen and other persons in leadership positions to view leadership from the perspective of humanity”
Weighing on the situation in Igbo-Eze North council area, Chief Ike Onu, one of the leaders of the group and chieftain of the PDP described the wanton neglect of the council as pathetic, saying people die on a regular basis from curable diseases as a result of dearth or complete absence of functional health centers. He decried the numerous avoidable deaths that occur in Igbo Eze North yearly as a result of scanty government health facilities, noting however that “with this autonomy granted to local governments, there is a glimmer of hope”
“Local government is a very critical organ among the three tiers of government as it’s the closest government to the vulnerable people in the society. Empowering them to access funds directly from the federation’s account and utilize same without the meddling of state governors is a very crucial achievement in President Tinubu’s administration.
“Local government is a very critical organ among the three tiers of government as it’s the closest government to the vulnerable people in the society. Empowering them to access funds directly from the federation’s account and utilize same without the meddling of state governors is a very crucial achievement in President Tinibu’s administration”, he further said.