We all can continue to say gleefully Nigeria is a failed nation without thinking forward that we are saying we are a failed people. Yes, I mean you are a failed person. The solutions to Nigeria's problems is not the government. The government is the problem. But then, the government is the reflection of its population. Remember we vote these people into office, although at the time of voting, we may not be sure who will become a good manager or a monster. Do not trust people in power. We the people determine what manner of nation we want to build. Many of us who do not vote, or refuse to vote, have sacrificed our right to complain about the design of the craft; those that could not vote for no fault of theirs, must offer support to the good deeds and wise counsel how the design should be made or made better.

Most of us talk about the problems of Nigeria as if only the government is affected. Have we ever asked ourselves what the role of our local government is? Why do we always blame the government in the central? A Central government that is so far away from the people. I am not saying we should not pontificate about good governance at the central government, but we should lower & fixate our eyes to the local government as well. Politics begins at the local level. We have 774 LGAs in Nigeria. The Nigerian constitution shares functions to the three tiers of government—federal, state, and local. Do you know who your local government chairman is? I guess you don’t know, and this illustrates our poor performance in our great office of Citizen.

The functions of a local government council includes: provision and maintenance of homes for the destitute and infirm; establishment, maintenance and regulation of slaughter houses, slaughter slabs, markets, motor parks and public conveniences; construction and maintenance of roads, streets, street lightnings, drains and other public highways, parks, gardens, open spaces, or such public facilities as may be prescribed from time to time by the State House of Assembly; collection of certain levies and taxes; provision and maintenance of public conveniences, sewage and refuse disposal (i.e. waste management); provision and maintenance of primary, adult and vocational education; development of agriculture and natural resources, other than the exploitation of minerals; provision and maintenance of health services; and provision of such services that may be conferred upon it by the State House of Assembly.

Does your local government council provide those services? I bet you won't say yes. Do you now understand why our towns and villages have become the capitals of garbage, indiscipline, and disorder? Many of our 774 LGAs have populations of sub-one hundred thousand. Some of them receive from the Federation Account more than one billion nairas a year. The question we must ask ourselves is how much of the monthly allocations from the Federation Account and the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) (at both local and state levels) is invested by our local government councils in the provision of those vital services? And do we, citizens care to inquire and apply pressure at this all important tier of government?

At the local government level, it is all common to see “thugs” harassing citizens and extorting all kinds of sums from the people in the name of levies and many taxes, which are not applied to the provision of the services listed above. Such monies end up in private pockets, including the hellishly insatiable ones of the local government chairmen, certain traditional rulers and thug leaders. Do you now see that corruption is in all roots of government?

What we need to do is focus on every tier of government, and understand the responsibilities of each, and hold the key players to account. No one has the monopoly of knowledge and experience in everything under the sun. The government has to learn to listen, consult, and retract from most of their elitist and unpopular policies when it is clear things aren't adding up, and their policies are boomeranging.

No nation becomes civilized where the people hand over their lives to government, and become spectators, blaming the government for every form of personal idleness and indulgence, abdication of social responsibility, and for their choices, wondering why the government did not stop them. The government is not God. And even God does not impose Himself on us. He allows us to make our choices but never indulges us to choose the consequences.


Source: http://www.rapportnaija.com/2016/03/do-you-know-your-local-government.html