By Innocent Okon
The frenzy, like before, is palpable! The falcon can no more hear the falconer, because the cacophony of noise from the gallery is overwhelming and defeaning.
The popular stand is always massive, because the space is predictably cheap. Here, it is the rule of the most vociferous that reigns over rule of superior argument!
Here, convenience holds sway over and above conviction. It is the present, without the invaluable benefits of both the distant and immediate past. And the roller coaster show continues to provide exciement without covering any distance!
Just when the national economy is expecting more assaults from persistent agitation by the Labour for ‘living wage’ for workers, the political space is inundated with renewed call for financial autonomy for local governments .
The 1999 constitution (as Amended) cedes the control and management of local governments to respective states’ legislature, while monthly allocations due each local government are domiciled and dispensed through a Joint Account committee under the supervision of the Executive arm of the state government.
Truth be admitted, this constitutional arrangement has been serially abused by many overzealous and overreaching state Governors!
Funds released to each local government from the Federation Account hardly arrives the till of the local councils without being substantially “edited” by the state governments. This is what has elicited the strident calls for financial autonomy to local councils without ” a stop over” at states’ Joint Account committee.
The agitation has received the political support of the Federal government in Abuja. A judicial imprimatur for direct disbursement of funds to councils is being sought at the apex court of the land by the Federal Government.As early or late as possible, the judgement is coming for or against the agitation.
But can we revisit the past to foretell the future? During the military dictatorship of President Ibrahim Babangida (1983-93) , funds were directly disbursed to local councils through the Central Bank . Chairmen of local government councils over night , became emperors.
Affairs of many local councils were run from hotel suites and private living rooms. Personnel emoluments of workers were owed for years, primary school education suffered fatal assault through deliberate negligence, and many local government councils only existed in the media and account records of the Federal Ministry of Finance!
Across the country, the situation became so disquieting that the Federal government had to establish a special Agency called State Primary Education Board (SPEB) to salvage Primary education which is constitutionally the responsibility of local councils.
Like the grumbling Israelites on their way from Egyptian captivity, even local government civil servants and primary school teachers are now clamouring for financial autonomy for local councils.
Regrettably, oblivious of the harrowing experiences of the distant past. Nigerian politicians, like leopards, hardly let go their trademark spots of kleptomania and primitive aggrandisement!
No legislation, no matter how draconian, will turn most political helmsmen and women at local councils to be transparent, accountable and judicious with funds, if and when funds are directly disbursed to their coffers.
I risk being dismissed as a prophet of doom for holding this opinion tenaciously. History is in my favour . Unfortunately, when History is allowed to repeat itself (if the judicial push for autonomy succeeds) , it will come at a prohibitive cost! And many bitter lessons thrown up, would have become irreversible.
Okon, a journalist and lawyer, lives in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State
