Wednesday 24 December 2014

SAVE OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

The tumultuous rancour and bloody bickering associated with the electioneering process at all level of governance is beyond reasonable doubt a resonating bell ringing the tunes impeding political staccato and economic imbroglio for our dear Nigeria! The intellectual thrust of this paper revolves around the sorry state of functional decay and institutional denigration observed in the administration of the local government areas in Nigeria. Local governments are organic outcomes of the process of historical evolution and political development brought to bear as a result of the increasing complexities and ever rising burden of contemporary governance! Thus they can be seen as Governments at the grassroots established by law to perform specified functions within defined areas!  Accordingly the essence and relevance of local governments can never be over emphasized, what has become disturbing indeed is the poor performance of Local Governments in Nigeria which has in turn occasioned a plethora of reactions from both scholars and charlatans alike! Whereas some view it as a viable instrument of socio-economic development and an ideal tool for the democratic experiment at the local level, others view it as a misplaced institutional dead wood which does no one any good and at such should be discarded into the waste bins of history! To these scholars, the present pitiable performance of Local Governments has made but a dismal mockery of democracy, shaming the entire sequence of democratization. In the face of this monstrous situation, a Pandora box of reactions, some blinded by erroneous susurrations has emerged! This view is occasioned by a number of reasons ranging from the predication of Local Governments as third tier hinged on constitutional blunder and disastrous mutation of alien political genes with attendant subsequent relegation of Local Government to the role of a second fiddle which is only fit as spheres of prebendal gratification for political thugs, riff-rafs, ragamuffins and touts! Thus serving as baseless financial drain pipes to the national treasury stemming from absence of expertise and misplaced loyalty. This situation is getting dire given the up coming elections which has Infact occasioned a frenzied bid to conquer and unbridled faddy to please in order to gain political patronage using the grass root governments as mere tools of political  gratification! This clearly presents a problem which cries out for solutions! Are we as privileged intellectuals to stand by and watch the local governments be used recklessly by the namby pamby politicians as laboratories of dangerous political experiments? Are we to stand by and watch our nearest neighbour to the corridors of power & participation brutally slaughtered in the bid for political gratification? Are we to sit, smile and strut passively while our very future is been wasted quotidian by so-called frivolous political campaigns? No!!!! I say No!!! Today I chide Scholars all over Nigeria to think out solutions to this seeming socio-political quagmire for its now or never! Yes! A wise old man once said albeit correctly that the past is in the present, just as the present is pregnant with the future! This is our chance to salvage the future! Anselmo!!! Think I daresay!!! Your contributions are warmly welcomed! The ideas contained here are mine and wholly mine, at such I'm liable for any mistake observed therein! Bonjour! Obrigado!

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