Poor governance, lack of accountability’ responsible for insecurity’

Poor leadership and lack of accountability at state and local government levels fueled the insecurity experienced in parts of the country, according to a report by the Good Governance Index (GGI).

In the report, the group said it came to this conclusion after systemic research on factors responsible for insecurity in Nigeria to identify the elements behind the escalation.

To achieve its goal, the non-profit organisation said it relied on primary sources of data in interviews, on the spot assessments tours, interactions with key stakeholders at the various tiers of government as well as a close review of documents and policy papers on governance in Nigeria.

At the end of its research, the GGI said it discovered that poverty is more prevalent in local areas, hence the insecurity.

The report signed by the special rapporteur, Thomas Uzah, on Tuesday, also revealed that a bulk of the security challenges emanates from the state and local government levels due to failures of the elite at the helms of affair.

It also said that there is a lack of accountability and transparency by government officials, leaving the young population susceptible to criminal elements.

The GGI, through the report, however, called on the federal government to begin the process of demanding accountability and transparency from state and local governments.

According to the group, this will ensure that criminal gangs do not find the local government areas as veritable grounds for the escalation of violence in the country.

“The Good Governance Index, a non-profit organization dedicated to the entrenchment of good governance and accountability in governance at all tiers of government in Nigeria undertook systemic research on factors responsible for insecurity in Nigeria to identify the factors responsible for the escalation of insecurity in Nigeria,” the report read.

“It relied on primary sources of data in interviews, on the spot assessments tours, interactions with key stakeholders at the various tiers of government as well aa s close review of documents and policy papers on governance in Nigeria.

“Every country has her fair share of security challenges, but when the state of insecurity rises by the day, then there is a need for urgent action. This has been the situation in Nigeria in recent years. Thus, the problem of insecurity in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized.

“Consequently, insecurity has taken various forms in different parts of the country. In the South-West, armed robbers have taken over, while in the North, cross-border bandits operate with ease. However, in the South-South, there are rampant cases of kidnapping. Also the continuous wave of crime and armed robbery attacks, cult killings etc all point to the fact that insecurity is fast becoming a norm in Nigeria and have somewhat suddenly become attractive to specific individuals in seeking to resolve issues that could have ordinarily been settled through due process. The end-products lead to the decimation of innocent lives, disruption of economic activities, and destruction of properties, among others.

“Local government in Nigeria have more significant challenges than other tiers of government since they have the responsibility of ensuring equitable social and economic development at the grassroots. Cha men of the council are expected to prepare programmes of work and related financial implication, manage and supervise the allocation of financial and human resource coupled with appropriate monitoring of project execution.

“Unfortunately, apart from lacking the above requirements both the elected and civil service officials at the local government lack the ability to establish excellent working relationships, ability to build the consensus, negotiation skills and the commitment to develop a partnership for improved development effectiveness throughout all the Local Government Areas.

“From all indication, it was observed that local government administration as a whole is increasing in scope day to day with resulting increased responsibilities.  This means that Local Government administration does not merely require people with academic paper qualification, but people with initiative ability to lead, ability to enthuse and to guide. Unfortunately, the Local Governments have fai their both their statutory powers and political will to address these issues.

“It must be stated that the role of state government as a tier of government in Nigeria cannot be overemphasized. It has been increasingly noted that the various state governments have been notorious in rendering local government areas in the states ineffective and mostly underfunded. It has also been stated in numerous forums that state governors are in the habit of depriving the bulk of the people in the local government areas the dividends of democracy, and this is somewhat responsible for the spate of agitations at the local government levels which gave rise to all sort of anomalies at the grassroots levels.”