Electing Indolence!

Peter Obi

Successive administrations in Anambra State, over the last four years' refuse to conduct council polls, for selfish political reasons
By Okechukwu Obenta , Awka
The non-conduct of local government council elections in Anambra State over the last three years might trigger off another round of violence in the state, if feelers from the grassroots are anything to go by. Although normalcy and peace has seemingly returned to the state, after the past few weeks of near genocide unleashed on the people by armed militant groups which the State Governor, Peter Obi, ordered their ouster from Onitsha, the commercial nerve of the state where they have over the years been milking the state dry of her financial resources, indications have emerged that the state might soon be faced with yet another trouble. The source of the potential violence, The Source learnt has to do with the non-conduct of elections at the local government level. Notably, since the expiration of the tenure of the first set of democratically elected officers at the local government level in the state at the inception of the current democratic era, it has been difficult to conduct elections at the level again thus the running of that local governments had transited from the Heads of Personnel Management (HPMs) to caretaker committees whose process of selection are normally non-elective. This has been the situation right from the later part of former Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju era (from September 2002 when the tenure of the first batch of elected chairmen and councilors) through the three-year reign of Dr. Chris Ngige; the situation persists till this day under Obi.

But revealing the growing disenchantment over the situation among majority of the people in the state, particularly workers at the local government level, the state President of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), comrade Goddy Ibekwe, who incidentally is also the state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), told The Source that the situation is no longer amusing. In fact, Ibekwe told The Source that the state government would have to contend with serious resistance from the workers if by November, the state fails to join the rest of the federation in conducting elections at the local government level, as already planned by the former State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC). Ibekwe: “We have endured enough, we may not condone it again, because we are part of this country.” In fact, Ibekwe was unequivocal that those at the helm of affairs in the state are merely refusing to conduct local government elections so that they would continue to manipulate the revenue accruing to the third tier. The situation he lamented, has brought serious dearth of infrastructure development in the various communities besides the increase in the wave of crime. Ibekwe is even more worried that the state might not be ready for the election in November because since the disbandment of the former SIEC headed by Cornel Umeh immediately after he was sworn into office, Governor Obi has not reconstituted the commission.

But the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Obi, Mike Udah, in his reaction assured that the government would conduct the council elections, but said that the government would only do so when it is satisfied that the exercise would produce quality people that would give the desired leadership at the local government system. As far as Udah is concerned, the government would not be stampeded into rushing to conducting council elections but would have to plan the exercise so as to ensure that it is transparent, free and fair. Udah, however, insisted that because the commission has just been inaugurated following the Appeal Court, Enugu judgement which on March 15 upheld Obi as the true winner of the April 19, 2003 gubernatorial election in the state and his subsequent swearing in, in March 17, 2006, it would be unfair for anybody to so soon start becoming restive over non-conduct of council elections by the government. According to Udah, it is this kind of undue haste that has put the state in its current level of chaos and backwardness. “You know people in Anambra State are people of different ilk. Their thinking pattern, their level of reasoning, their mentality, their approach to issues are characterised by undue haste which was partly the reason why the state is in shambles”. He disagrees that the absence of elected local government chairmen and councillors is partly responsible for the level of insecurity in the state. The CPS, infact would not also agree that the communities would have been better developed in the area of infrastructural provisions if there were elected chairmen and councilors at the helm of affairs.

Meanwhile, the secretary of the commission, Emma Ezenwaji, in order to acquaint the staffers of the commission with election procedures has been conducting series of lectures for them. Ezenwaji told The Source that apart from the absence of the commissioners, nothing has practically changed in the commission. The workers, he said, are intact and are paid salaries and other allowances due them as at and when due. The commission, he said currently maintains 200 staff, 63 of whom are electoral officers deployed to the various local government to keep abreast with the terrain in case elections are to be ordered at any time. He disclosed that some of the destroyed electoral materials had been replaced by the former commission before they were sacked.

One of the electoral officers in charge of Orumba- south, local government, Alloy Muoka, at one of the lecture series emphasised the need for the promotion of Igbo language in the conduct of council elections in the state. This, he said would make the election more successful as the electorate at the grassroots would be encouraged to embrace the exercise through such policy.

Be that as it may, many say that it is only expedient for the state government to put in place machineries for proper democratisation of the local government system in the state. According to political scholars, the vacuum created in the past exposed the state to an unquantifiable loss of valuable properties as was experienced during the mayhem of 2004 when every major institution of the state government including the Government House, Awka, State House of Assembly complex, Judiciary complex, headquarters of the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), Ikenga Hotel and the State Broadcasting Complex (ABS), were either vandalised or torched. The then regime of Dr. Ngige had put the estimated loss incurred during the violence at about N40 billion. The mayhem was occasioned by an alleged plot by the Ngige government to manipulate the conduct of the council elections to the detriment of some other political interest groups in the state. The cost of the destruction at the SIEC headquarters– including the ballot boxes and other electoral materials already procured for the conduct of council elections– according to the former chairman, Umeh was over N900 million.

Instructively, the manner funds accruing to the 21 local government councils in the state is being managed has been a source of grave worry to many in the state, particularly, members of the opposition parties. They believe at the time that the state governor deliberately refuse to conduct council elections so as not to provide political opponents an opportunity of gaining any atom of control which may arise should they win in any of the local governments. Notedly, local government chairmen had constituted the bulk of the political force in the opposition Anambra Peoples Forum (APF) which Emeka Offor, the then political godfather of former Governor Mbadinuju used to fight the regime when he fell out with the governor. Thus, subsequent governors have, therefore, avoided creating such opportunities for their political opponents. Besides this, the absence of elected leaders at the council level has also provided the governors with easy access to the funds accruing to that tier of government, as those appointed by the respective governors normally do not have the temerity to refuse whatever directive the governor gives regarding how local government fund should be spent and on what projects and programmes. Those so appointed normally act as the governor's stooge.

Under Ngige, for instance, The Source learnt that after releasing whatever amount of money would be enough to pay the salaries of the workers at each of the council area, a paltry sum would be given to each head of personnel management or caretaker committee member to take care of their overhead expenses including security vote, while the huge balance from the allocation to that council area from the monthly distribution from the federation account would be kept by the governor. In fact, it was revealed that after their appointment, each of them was said to have endorsed having received and spent N150 million in arears. And in exchange of this, the then governor allegedly bought for each of them a Mercedes 230 car and a cash gift of N200,000.

The Source learnt that the chairman of the state's chapter of ALGON, otherwise called Forum of State's Local Government Chairmen, Dr. Uche Ezeliora and the state's Accountant General since a few weeks now have been in the net of the dreaded Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) answering questions about the manner funds that accrued to the 21 local government areas in the state during the about three year period of the Ngige administration were spent.

Although the current restiveness in the state over the non-conduct of council elections might not be borne of any suspicion that the incumbent governor, Obi might want to toe the path of his predecessors, The Source, however, learnt that the agitation was as a result of the burning desire by politicians to have an opportunity of testing their popularity and exercising control over the grassroots. Thus if the Obi government eventually conducts council elections, he just may have scored a major political point for itself.