State/Council Joint Account Hampering Grassroots Governance, CSO Warns

Centre for Human Rights and Accountability Network (CHRAN), a civil society organisation (CSO), has decried the collapse of government at the local government areas and blamed the state governors for the worrisome situation.

In an interview with LEADERSHIP in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, director of CHRAN in the state, Otuekong Franklin Isong, who decried the subjugation of the third tier of government, described the State/Local Governments’ Joint Account as a political misnomer which has impinged negatively on the growth and development of government at the grassroots.

He pointed out that section 162(5,6), of the constitution, which the states derived powers to lord it over the councils, was wrongly crafted for the third tier administration to become an appendage of the state to be ambushed and imprisoned by some greedy governors, thereby making the council chairmen not to be accountable to the people.

Making a case for such provisions to be expunged from the constitution, Isong noted that the low growth indexes across the 774 councils in the country stem from what he described as paltry and haphazard disbursement of allocations by state governors, who whimsically determined what is due for each of the councils in their states.

Besides, the CHRAN chief faulted section 197(1b), which created the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), saying such provisions have made the LGAs to be totally subjected to states control, with governors overwhelming authority and influence in matters of funding, imposition of chairmen and firing stubborn ones who would not want to do their bidding in absolute loyalty.

While advocating for local government reforms for a functional third tier, Isong, also called for the section in the constitution to be removed, as well as streamline local government elections from the current three years tenure to four years in line with the lifespan of governors, noting that governors always capitalized on the stopgap, to create interim measures as a way of whipping chairmen into line.

Lamenting the prevailing widespread underdevelopment across the 31 Akwa Ibom Councils, the CHRAN Director, faulted Governor Umo Eno’s Executive Order (EO), that compels Chairmen, to relocate from Uyo, the state capital, to their headquarters for effective monitoring and implementation of development programes, saying such policy was dead on arrival and open invitation to crises.

He said: “The only antidote is to free and allow the Local Government which is the closest to the grassroots to operate independently with financial freedom given to it to function as it is with the state and the federal government.

“If you asked the Local Government Chairmen to go and operate from the headquarters without enough funds to do the development projects that the people can be engaged at the grassroots, such disconnect could lead to them being kidnapped or attacked.

“Across all the Local Governments in Akwa Ibom, except for Uyo, that has built a new health centre, the same cottage hospitals without drugs and medical personnel that bad existed over the years are those available to take care of the primary health system.”