ALL politicians are the same. They all crave for power. What they do with powerand authority once granted by voters tends to make a difference among them under a participatory democracy. Political campaigns provide opportunities for them to showcase what they can, and are willing to do if elected. These often come in form of campaign promises, which, going by the sophistry of the candidates could turn the country into an El dorado within a short spell.The peculiarities of our situation make those promises look real than imagined. The widening socio-economic gap between the rulers and the led has compounded the problem of ignorance, poverty, and general insecurity. The promises were mistaken as being borne out of patriotism and sincerity, instead of what they actually were, whereas they were deliberate falsehoods by many of our politicians, who at best could be classified as demagogues.Fundamental issues like insecurity, energy crisis, food insecurity, deplorable roads and infrastructure and collapsed health care characterized the campaigns of the leading political parties. The opposition blamed the center for most of the anomalies, without highlighting the blights in states under the control of opposition parties.Under the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, the Nigerian electorate is empowered to review the mandate of elective public officers at state and federal levels. In theory, voters are given an opportunity to renew the mandate of an officer, who has distinguished himself in living by his oath of office, which is to serve conscientiously and live above board in the discharge of his constitutional duties. In practical terms, the people have been at the mercy of the few that easily manipulate the system to suit their selfish individual or group agenda. The activities of this class of persons made it difficult for voters to effect the desired change in the quality of representation during the recent elections. Thus, what we have in some states is a pseudo change, throwing up a challenge: tenacity and vigilance of the citizenry to ensure that the next four years is not all about motion and no movement.There was a time when taps freely flowed in our major cities. Craze bills from NEPA now PHCN was not in vogue. It was the period that Nigeria was known to have the widest highways on the African continent. The presence of miscreants at airports, motor parks and sea ports was relatively insignificant. Banditry was not rampant and brazen because the police and other law enforcement agencies were always prepared to enforce the law and dedicate themselves to the service of their fatherland and mankind. All these have gone with the wind, because of one factor: indiscipline, which breeds irresponsible leadership.We see this ugly trend played out in several ways since our country restored democracy on May 29, 1999. We have dissipated much energy in lampooning the centre for most of the lapses. But the most outrageous blunders are being committed at the other tiers of government: state and local governments. They are the closest arms of government to the grass roots, which means they have a greater role in bringing governance and its immense benefits to majority of the people. But rather than meeting the yearnings of the citizens, they have plundering the treasuries and engaging in vainglory. For example, why should the building of a canteen for workers be celebrated by an elective public officer as one of his major project We should ask ourselves why a governor will build a civic centre and go about beating his chest that he has been able to deliver what they now bandy about as the dividends of democracy.Most of our cities are still without potable water. Many households in urban centres rely on borehole and wells as sources of drinking water. Rural dwellers rely on streams and even rivers for drinking water and for other means. The road network that was constructed between 1960 when the nation got its independence and 1983 before the military sacked the second republic have been overgrown by weeds in many rural areas because of lack of maintenance. All these among the core areas that state and local council administration can bring succour to the grass roots.In Lagos state, some council chairmen are already campaigning for re-election as they approach the end of their three-year tenure. They are sending text messages to voters that having been in power, they are tested hands, who can be relied upon, because they have built canteens and provided free uniforms to pupils. Yet, their areas of jurisdiction are under perennial threats from erosion, bad roads, poorly executed road projects, decaying infrastructure, ill-equipped medical centres and abandoned street light project. Yet, Lagos is the acclaimed centre of excellence.Perhaps, Nigerians need to go back to the various advertisements, which were placed in major national dailies by serving governors in order to appreciate the import of this article. The aggregate of them was that huge public resources, which they should have expended on projects that could bring greater value to the people, were wasted on repainting halls, erecting cenotaph and organizing musical concerts.Another May 29 will soon be here, when the newly elected public officers will take their oath of office, with many still of the belief that the hope of turning things around rests squarely with the central government. All the three levels of government complement one another. But the fulcrum of development remains the state and local governments, given their proximity to the grass roots and this thesis is corroborated by a former minister of Finance, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu as far back as September 2009 in a per he delivered at the fifth Tai Solarin Memorial lecture. His conclusion was that, Leadership must take responsibility, leadership must imply what the root of the word, educate stands for, namely to lead and to serve. The change must start with improved governance at all levels, from community, traditional, local government, parastatals to the federal levels. Except Nigerian voters took their destinies in their hands this time round, the shape of what to come might not be skewed from what we have be going through since 1999 in terms of real economic growth and development, as well as rural transformation.Oderemi, 08023501874 (SMS Only)
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