* hails Supreme Court verdict

By Olufemi Oni, Ilorin

The granting of autonomy to the 774 local governments in Nigeria by the Supreme Court has been described as a welcome development that would catalyse development at the grassroots level.

Rev. Cornelius Fawenu, Kwara State Chairman of Partners for Peaceful Co-existence Centre, who stated this on Saturday in Ilorin while chatting with newsmen, said the apex court deserves commendation for the historic judgment.

He said: “To restate the obvious, the lack of autonomy for the third tier of government, which is the closest level of governance to the people, has brought untold hardship on the people. This was needless while the ignoble practice of making the local governments serve as appendages to state governments lasted.

“Had it been that level of governance had been allowed to function effectively with competent hands that were democratically elected at the helm of affairs, perhaps our story of development would have been different. But as it is always said: it is better late than never. Now that the ball is in the court of the masses, we must be on top of the game of electing competent hands to manage the affairs of the local government areas.

“While we celebrate the much-expected decision of the apex court, it must not be lost on us that the development beckons on all stakeholders to sit up and make the system work effectively and productively.

“Generally, laws should at best reflect what is good for the majority of the people. But even at that, every law bows to the morality of its operators. If you ask me, I will tell you for free that the intention which created the joint local government account in the first place was certainly not to use it to strangle grassroots development, but that was what it became in the hands of opportunistic bad managers of the system.”

Rev. Fawenu, therefore, urged the people, particularly the civil society groups to be concerned and sufficiently involved to prevent unscrupulous elements from hijacking the new autonomous local government system, adding that the best way to do this is to ensure that each local community presents people of proven character and integrity to manage the affairs of their respective local government councils as councilors and chairmen.

He added: “Expectedly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will take over the conduct of local government elections across the 774 local government areas in the nation. In light of the controversies that have always surrounded the conduct of elections by INEC in the past, civil society groups must be on the watch to ensure that the federal government also does not become a monster as a result of this development that has directly or indirectly concentrated more power into the center.

“It is said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. In that case, this new development must not be allowed to make the federal government become too powerful as to turn Nigeria into a one-party state, where all states and local government areas will become the appendage of a central government that will be parochially governed.”