While all eyes look towards Abuja, some state governors are enjoying a swell time controlling elections into the hundreds of local government areas spread across the country.

What they present as Independent Electoral Commissions cannot pass credibility tests anywhere. At a time when President Bola Tinubu has promised to grant autonomy to the third tier of government, governors are doing their best possible to keep the grassroots tied to their apron strings. They want to pay the piper and dictate the tune.

On September 21, 2024 four states – Imo, Sokoto, Enugu and Kwara, respectively – conducted elections into their local government councils. Imo, Sokoto and Kwara are controlled by the All Progressives Congress (APC). Enugu is under the administration of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In Imo, Chairman of the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), Charles Ejiogu, boldly announced that APC cleared all the 27 chairmanship positions.

That was not enough. The party also emerged victorious to produce all the 305 councillors. Sokoto had a PDP governor until the 2023 elections. Aminu Tambuwal, the immediate past governor of the state, is in the Senate. He was also Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Strangely, the APC won in all the chairmanship elections and successfully defeated 14 other parties to pocket all the councillorship slots. It was the same story in Kwara where the SIEC Chairman, Mohammed BabaOkanla declared APC winner across the 16 local councils and 196 wards.

PDP performed the same magic in Enugu State. Chairman of the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC), Christian Ngwu, like the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) boss, Mahmood Yakubu, is a professor. The wonderful results do not come from just PDP and APC.

State governors are once again introducing Caretaker Committees through the back door. The idea may be to plant very weak candidates as local government chairmen in order to continue to hold on to Federal Allocations.

In Anambra, the ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) emerged tops in the September 28 local government elections. Chairman of the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC), Genevieve Osakwe, described the exercise as ‘fairest’. The Anambra case is intriguing. This is a state where four political parties are very strong and active. The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, hails from Anambra.

The APC and PDP are equally pulling their weights. And yet despite this, one party defied all the odds to sweep all the available positions. There is danger in all this. State governors are once again introducing Caretaker Committees through the back door.

The Idea may be to plant very weak candidates as local government chairmen in order to continue to hold on to Federal Allocations, from the centre. Many of the incoming local government chairmen know little about constitutional provisions and will be glad to lick the boots of their masters.

A situation where campaign managers of some state House of Assembly members are given automatic slots will create massive maladministration.

Development should be felt in local government areas, therefore, the best must be offered. President Shehu Shagari was once a local government chairman, and that was after serving as a minister in the First Republic and Federal Commissioner for Finance under Gen. Yakubu Gowon.

Prince Ademola AdenijiAdele, who eyed the Lagos Government House in the early years of the Fourth Republic, began as Chairman of Lagos Island Local Government Council. Under Governor Babatunde Fashola, he was Commissioner for Sports. We need men with pedigree, to transform the local government areas. Party thugs, refined street urchins and ladies without inhibitions, are useful in their own right, but must be kept away from serious government business.

We must move away from the old normal where instead of huge Federal Allocations, local government chairmen were offered pocket money by some of the governors. That explains the gross underdevelopment in many of the 774 councils in the country. There was an instance of a governor who handled all major and minor projects in all the local government areas of his state.

Even to construct the main gate leading to council headquarters, the governor was in charge. At the Federal Level, the National Assembly is made up of politicians from different political parties. The state governors belong to various political parties. Allowing these governors to pocket the local government councils, will further under develop the nation and impoverish the people. (New Telegraph Editorial)