Gombe’s joint LG project agency not in tandem with vision for fiscal autonomy

BY IBRAHIM NASIR

Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State seems to be working against the painstaking efforts and vision of President Muhammadu Buhari to devolve power around the Local government actors in states by granting them fiscal autonomy to allocate resources and do well for themselves.

President Buhari’s blueprint saw the immediate passing of the legislative bill of the Local Government Autonomy at the National Assembly seeking to allow local government authorities in respective states to work independently and have unhindered access to receive allocation directly from the federal government which was signed and sealed.

Inuwa’s upending beliefs and character seems to be totally against the principles of President Buhari’s decision to separate the local government allocation from state funds. The racketeers and profiteers of Local Government finances have formed illegal opposition in their states to undermine the agenda to capture state resources with the crude usage of absolute power.

His attempt to strip off legitimacy and administrative powers from the local government authorities in the state is self indicting and would lead to the contravention of the mores and ethos of the Buhari led administration to prioritize the yearnings and aspirations of the local government to allow resources trickle down from the Upstream, Midstream and to the downstream sector.

It is a political curve ball spinning to create encumbrances in the state with the interplay of forces working in tandem with the state governor Inuwa Yahaya to fulfill his Selfish mandate. His interloping presence to meddle and interface between the local actors in sharing and deciding the financial control allocated to the local government outlays his focus of low remittances to the local government by using the instrumentality of faceless characters in the state to corner up the proceeds for himself. This catalytic prompter will haemorrhage businesses, expand poverty and weaponise criminality in the state.

For the records, the Local governments in Nigeria have been fully incorporated into the federalized spoils sharing arrangements underpinned by politics of distribution and patronage with beneficial reforms and corresponding linkage to administer growth to all tiers of power.

President Buhari’s efforts in ensuring that the financial autonomy of Local governments by abolishing state and local government joint accounts through constitutional means is a foolproof strategy to drive engagement at the grassroots level by mobilising state resources to be distributed equitably. Also, by flashing the unhappy consequences, state governors will no longer be the final arbiter of the resource control of the local government in their states.

However, Governor Inuwa acclaimed defender Garkuwa, has turned out to be a striker fighting against the principles, legacies and philosophies of President Muhammadu Buhari to stamp out corruption through his proposed Joint LG Project Development Agency in all the states across the federation.

The fiscal autonomy given to the Local governments by President Buhari will plug the wastages of financial recklessly and misappropriation of funds and by dismantling the incumbent forces of state governors, the LG will now be able to access the needed funds to discharge statutory responsibilities and this would enable them earn value directly and be more participatory, independent and accountable to the rural communities.

The Presidential gesture on Local Government Autonomy comes on the heels to drive policy engagements down to the grassroots level of governance thereby involving no risk and harm. It is evidently proven over the years that, the Local government had been sufficiently dismayed by poor performance, weak internal structures and delineated arrangements which has hinged the progress and formation of growth at the epicentre of power. Development experts are of the view that most human development takes place at the local level thereby linking up to the cities and urban areas.

Sequel to this, the Presidential order given that Local government autonomy should be instituted across the 774 local government in Nigeria was to checkmate power by eliminating the bottlenecks that channels resources for growth into states. The motley was to end the fiasco, lamentation, poor performance and poor service delivery of governmental institutions across the geopolitical zones.

Nonetheless, the continuing decay of orphaned communities in local government through worsening unemployment, harsh poverty, increased crime rate, drug abuse among other untoward features with the sedentary dwellers has called for social action and intervention policy to transcend voluntary actions to provide modality for participatory politics that would adjudicate conflicts, build institutions, encourage community development and fast track sustainable and efficient service delivery.

The Postpartum development of the local government as the lowest subnational level of government has spawned turbulent debates in public circles. It points to the fact that local government are the true reflection and mirror image of the character of the state. In other words, it seeks to mobilise, harness and deploy the entire range of social forces at the grassroots by borrowing from the energies of the formal sector to engineer growth.

Growth at the local level through representative council established by law to exercise specific powers within defined areas. These powers should give the council substantial control over local affairs as well as the staff and institutional financial control to initiate and direct the provisions of services and to determine and implement project so as to complement the activities of the state and federal government in their areas and to ensure devolution of functions to these council’s and through the active participation of the people and their traditional institutions.

Financial autonomy of the local administration Is the ultimate elixir cum panacea to all of the unsavory activities of the State governors of the various states.The local government Caretaker Chairmen seems like political prisoners to the governor’s grovelling in obeisance to his whims and Caprices. While many governors sees the local government as an appendage to funnel the state resources for personal gains and self aggrandisements.

Democracy has consistently been moving from the sublime to the ridiculous at the local government level. A direct financial autonomy will ensure that the local units, has all of the political leeway to determine the pace at which their destiny is defined to forge ahead. The local units, is the conduit pipes, through which the dividends of our nascent and fledgling democracy gets to the people because most of the masses resides in/at the local units.

The local units has for too long suffered (EDE) Extended detainment and exploitation in the hands of the governor’s who have kept the state treasury in their pocket.

However, the suffocating effect of state governments on them with the widespread appointment of caretaker council in the place of elected ones, the resource constraints within a narrowing treadmill, the anything goes nature of personnel that runs the council’s and the failure to develop a governance model that could have revitalize them in a measure to closing up the gap that disconnects them from the true arteries of governance to interact with the resources in the state. By reinventing the local government through financial autonomy, kidnapping, terrorism, cultism, neighborhood theft, dilapidated primary schools, starvation of growth and pernicious poverty dovetailing into social unrest will be curbed.

Governor Inuwa Yahaya should stop claiming he is working in tandem with President Buhari’s administration in the state. He should stop acting to be receiving orders from the President whereas he is working for himself and the few people working for him to ruin the vision of the President to institute autonomous power for the local government actors in the state. We hereby call on the governor to desist from plunging the state into ruins with his actions. He should see the end of the Ramadan Fast as a means to carry out restitution, turn a new leave and seek the face of God to lead the state in a religious way.

Nasir sent this piece from Abuja