Were you surprised local government elections went the way they did in Niger and Lagos States'Did you ever expect different results from what you got' And would you expect different results from local government elections that would follow in other states'In a true Federal system of government, local governments come under direct and absolute supervision of state/regional/provincial governments. And their independence is only in the fact that they are not run on political party basis. That is why they are local governments. Really local and grassroots government. Those who get elected into offices contest on personal popularity basis. We must recall that even under the Military governments which some times ran a diarchy, local government officials were either selected by state governors, or were allowed to run on personality basis. It has been argued times without number that local governments are not the business of a federal government. Putting a ceiling to the number of local governments in the country or the total number a state is allowed to have is a gross anomaly in a Federation. It is absurd that the writers of the Military Constitution of 1999 should put a figure to the number of local governments. In the same vein, it is not the business of a Federal Government at the Centre to dictate or determine how many states a federal set up must have. In an ideal federation, the federating nationalities in a country like Nigeria would each decide on their own, how many states each nationality wishes to carve out of its region. Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England, all in Great Britain, may each decide to break their regions into as many states as they consider expedient for their administration. The province of Ontario in Canada or the state of California in the United States of America may decide to have 50 local governments each, if such a consideration suits them. It is not the business of Ottawa in Canada or Washington in the USA to dictate to their federating provinces/states how many local governments they should each have. When the current rulers allow reasoning to prevail and allow Nigerians to decide the fundamentals of their Union, it would dawn on every one that the South-South nation may decide to have 12 states in their region while the South-West may elect to have only three states in their region, and each of the states creating 50 local governments for ease of administration.For as long as we foolishly continue to seek to run local government administration from Abuja and base revenue allocation on the number of local governments per state, so long shall rulers of the states swallow up the local governments under their armpits. The party in power in the state will do everything, foul or fair, to control the leadership of local governments. I should hasten to remind all of us that Jack Leyton who was until two months ago the official Leader of Opposition in Canada started his career as a local government councillor on non-party basis. It was when he wanted to seek election at the Centre that he joined a political party. Let us have our Councillors and Chairmen on Zero-party basis, and let the best materials in the local communities run the affairs of their local governments. That is the healthy way to go. And that is the way to curb this winner-takes-all malady.
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