When the Supreme Court judgment affirmed the autonomy of 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria, Nigerians were like them in that dream, and their mouth filled with laughter as they rejoiced that the Supreme Court had done something noble for them.
South Easterners who were familiar with the history of the development of the region and the role truly autonomous Councils can play in the development of the region believe that the landmark judgment by the Supreme Court is Uhuru, as it has put the final nail in the coffin of underdevelopment in the region.
Over the years, the South-East people have been complaining that the Federal Government of Nigeria is far from them. At the State level, the people of the region believed that the state governors were equally too far from their LGAs, Wards, communities, and Hamlets.
With just five states and 95 Local Government Areas, the South-East is Nigeria’s smallest Geo-Political Zone by land with a total land mass of 29,362 Square Kilometers (29,362 km2) shared by its five states. This alone means that autonomy to the 95 LGAs is tantamount to the creation of more suburbs, townships, and layouts.
Every sound mind from the East should ask this question, why does development elude the five states when Enugu State is 7,161 Square Kilometers (7,161 km2), Abia State 6,320 Square Kilometers (6,320 km2), Ebonyi State 5,935 Square Kilometers (5,935 km2), Imo State, 5,530 Square Kilometers (5,530 km2) and finally, Anambra State: 4,416 Square Kilometers (4,416 km2)?
Is it not ridiculous that South-Easterners with 5 state governors, 15 Senatorial Districts, 43 Federal Constituency, and 95 Local Government Areas are still struggling to extend development beyond the capital cities of her five states with a total area of 29,362 square kilometers?
In most communities in Igboland, town unions and community leaderships have impacted more than the government because the government is far away from them. The only opportunity the people of the East have now is to allow the local government to penetrate their communities and solve developmental problems leaders in Umuahia, Awka, Abakiliki, Enugu, and Owerri can offer.
It is equally shocking and unbelievable that the first major move to truncate that landmark judgment from the Supreme Court came from the South-East, precisely from Anambra and Abia States, the two states that are unarguably the commercial hubs of the entire Old Eastern Region.
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Yes, other governors, including the remaining three states of the Southeast, may want to emulate what happened in Anambra and Abia State, but it is unfortunate that the opposition to local government autonomy is coming from the Southeast, a region in dire need of development.
State Governors have, over the years, stolen and misappropriated funds meant for the development of the Local government,hiding under the law that permits them to appoint Caretaker Committees.
Nobody is calling the governors agents of underdevelopment, but when one tries to shut down a light that illuminates the path of a people at night, how can such governors be classified?
Today, most communities that were initially developing with the presence of small-scale industries and businesses springing up from the East, West, South and North of the communities are all dead with no government presence.
The constant diversion of local government funds has kept rural communities in the Southeast underdeveloped and our rural communities can rightly be described as abandoned areas,resulting in rural-urban migration that has left the communities desolate and uninhabitable.
Today, no strong and serious-minded youths are seen in any rural community. The few seen around are recalcitrant or wallowing about.
Today, South East communities have become places where dangerous political thugs are bred. It has become a breeding ground for users and sellers of methamphetamine (mkpụrụ mmiri) and other hard drugs.
Again today, Southeast communities are now places where frustrated, hungry and jobless youths have offered themselves as willing tools for insecurity by engaging in things that are odd strangen and alien to the history and development of the people.
What is wrong with allowing the Local Government Authorities to have the funds, move into their communities, and meet with Traditional Rulers, President Generals of Town Unions, Women Leaders, Youth Leaders, and all necessary communal authorities to discuss the security and local cottage industries to get the rural dwellers busy?
The current administration of President Bola Tinubu may be accused of many things, but one positive aspect of this administration is the move to grant local government areas the autonomy they yearn for.
History will remember Governor Charles Soludo, Governor Alex Otti, and the current Speakers of the Anambra State and Abia State Houses of Assembly for their roles in trying to truncate what the entire region desperately needs at this time.
History will equally not be kind to all the members of the Anambra and Abia State Houses of Assembly who sit idly by and watch the Executives of both states use them to achieve anti-development laws that they will regret long after serving out their tenures.
As for all the Civil Society Groups and Political and Human Rights Activists, Body of Lawyers and Intelligentsia from the South East, carest thou not that thy people perish? How canst thou lie asleep?
Your Excellencies, what is wrong with allowing your LGA Chairmen to take away that responsibility of building rural roads from your table? What is wrong is allowing them to take care of community primary schools and revive them? What is wrong with allowing them to use their allocations to solve security and unemployment problems in the rural areas? What is wrong with supporting our rural farmers?
Over the years, Governors have failed to address the electricity needs of the rural populace. Why can’t they allow LGAs to source means of using Solar Mini Grids to power many communities in rural areas of the Southeast to get the people busy?
Many women die in the rural areas of our region from childbirth complications. Although there have been some recent improvements within the Southeast, why can’t LGA Chairmen be allowed to improve and develop the health centers into standard maternities for women and hospitals for rural dwellers?; Why are these Governors afraid of Local Government Chairmen holding their statutory allocations? Are they afraid the LG bosses will misappropriate them? If that’s their fear, then let them set up agencies and mechanisms to tackle them instead of indirectly constituting themselves into agents of underdevelopment.
Let everyone alive today realize just one thing, even death is not enough to erase history. We shall all be remembered for what we have done.
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