The war may appear subtle but it is real. Real in the sense that as President, he is informed enough to know that the efforts of his government are not being felt by the people in the local communities after one very challenging year in office.
Reason: State Governors in their insatiable appetite to corner and ‘steal’ more resources from the State/Local govt Joint account, are not allowing funds flow to LGs which ordinarily should be the engine of development.
Former President Muhammadu Buhari started it two years to the end of his tenure but he was scared off by state Governors who hijacked his close aides to close the door against local government autonomy.
He backed down because he lacked the muscle and political will to do the needful-use his Presidential powers to mobilize against the greedy state governors beginning from my native Ogun state, whose itching fingers would not allow local govts to breathe.
Incumbent President Bola Ahmed Tinubu already had enough on his plate in his bid to fix Nigeria.
Though, he declared that nobody should pity him in his Herculean task of fixing Nigeria since he asked for it,it is quite too apparent after twelve months in the saddle that the journey is tedious and energy sapping.
He confirmed as much at separate meetings he had with leaders from his native South West and the core North led by Yoruba Leaders of Thought and Arewa Consultative Forum respectively last week.
But unlike the usual praising of regional leaders by his predecessors, he threw the gauntlet at them.
He challenged them to look straight into their governors’ eyes and ask them to deliver governance to the people especially the local communities..
Tinubu’s new found obstacle to deliver on his promise is now hinged on state governors who he said, should allow local governments to breathe.
It is not a small war for a President to attempt to cut -to- size state governors who have over the years used their ‘awesome’ powers to corner the resources of local governments using the obnoxious State/Local government Account as instrument. This is so since Tinubu is in his first term usually regarded as a period to cajole for a second term.
Tinubu’s contention that local governments remain the powerful tool of development is instructive but not strange.
He saw it with his experience in Lagos where he used the court to fight Olusegun Obasanjo’s government over the latter’s seizure of his Local government Funds in spite of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
He won 21 times and today the 37 Local council development areas,LCDA,in Lagos remain a model.
Yes,he went to the Supreme Court which in turn asked the 36 states to show legal reasons why they should not be divested of the Power of life and death on the councils.
By sensitising Regional Power groups, to rise up,he has gone a step ahead of President Muhammadu Buhari,who was boxed into a corner to succumb to the ‘greedy’ state Governors.
Buhari showed he lacked the will power and muscle to set the local governments free .
In the contrary, Tinubu who told the Regional Leaders his Federal government has released more to the states, is determined for a fight.
This is why in the next few days and weeks,we should not be surprised if a private member in NASS sends a Bill against the Governors.
In other words, to effect any constitutional change ,Tinubu needs a fiat Bill as he did with the National Anthem to amend both Sections 7 and 8 of the nation’s 1999 constitution to make any meaningful change in the state of local governments.
It is also apparent that with his non- satisfaction with how the N50billion palliative to the states was ‘disbursed’, he is disturbed that the enemies of his government’s initiatives are largely within and not without.
Will Tinubu go the whole hog and also reach out to traditional rulers too inspite of the matter pending in the Supreme Court?
This obviously may be a card to rally public opinion against the Governors.
Though,Chief Justice of Nigeria,CJN Kayode Ariwoola has asked Judges not to be swayed by public opinion,that may be all what is needed by Tinubu who may be checkmated by the governors using the state assemblies to frustrate his move as they did to Buhari.
Will he also ‘sponsor’ Civil society organisations to rally the public against the Governors to allow funds get to the grassroots and relieve the citizens of the pains and burdens of his economic policies for which palliatives provided never reached them?
The next few weeks, pregnant with the strike by organised Labour on minimum wage, will be interesting.
Since he is a man of war, fighting on all sides and having won most of his wars, Tinubu appears determined to win or at least make a difference in governance on this issue
Let him mobilise all sectors for LG Autonomy – Gen Ishola Williams retd
In his reaction to the Frankly Speaking Column titled :Who Will Save Local Governments? published penultimate week,General Isola Williams,Ex Secretary of Transparency International and an advocate of Local Government Autonomy wrote:
It is a very serious issue.
It needs the Mass Media,Community Based Organizations, Traditional rulers, Nigeria Bar Association,NBA,Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, coming together and forming a coalition with Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON .
Besides, Each state must have a statute to define its relationship with Local Government Areas.
LGAS must have a charter to define its relationship with communities and traditional rulers .
He recalled that the state governors formed a ring around former President Muhammadu Buhari and killed the initiative for autonomy but it would appear that President Tinubu has learnt that from the way state governors ‘stole’ his N50b palliative. He knows as President the cries of the people and bulk of the problem stop at his table .