A member of the governing board of the North East Development Commission (NEDC), Sam Onuigbo has said the emasculation of local government councils by state governors was responsible for the slow growth of democracy in the country.
The former federal lawmaker noted that the development led to the lack of productive engagement of teeming unemployed youths at the grassroots and the attendant insecurity.
He said this in a statement on Friday to hail the Supreme Court on its landmark judgment on the issue of fiscal autonomy to Local Government Councils in Nigeria.
Onuigbo, who is also the Chairman of the Committee on Security, Climate Change, and Special Interventions on the Governing Board of NEDC, lamented that for over 24 years, the local government system was left to wallow in incessant manipulation by state governments.
He recalled that although former President Muhammadu Buhari signed Executive Order 10 granting fiscal autonomy to the councils, the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) found a way around it through the same apex court and continued holding down the council funds through the Joint States and Local Governments Accounts regime.
While commending President Bola Tinubu administration’s for undergirding the constitutional provision for local government autonomy with judicial pronouncement, Onuigbo said he anticipates that the abolition of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) would follow suit to ensure transparent local government elections in the country.
He stated: “I started agitating for Local Government autonomy out of experience and first-hand knowledge of how far the system suffered undue interference from state governments.
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“The issues of insecurity, youth restiveness and unemployment were direct fallouts of lack of accountable government at the grassroots. Democracy could not bear dividends because that tier of government was made an appendage of state executives.
“Now, the Supreme Court judgment has opened a big window of opportunity that things would be made right at the Local Government Councils. What remains is to cut the last ligament of the burden by abolishing SIECs so that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should conduct council polls.”
Onuigbo said it is only when council chairmen are freely elected by the people that proper accountability and provision of social amenities in the councils will take root.
He added: “Unlike the state governors, council chairmen do not enjoy constitutional immunity. So, any council chairman who messes up with council funds would be made accountable and prepared to have an explanation at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“But, for this to happen, all loopholes for possible manipulation or intimidation by state governors should be blocked. Communities should know that council chairmen are responsible to them and not to state governors when the opportunity to dictate the tune during council poll is taken away and given to the people,” he added