Akume’s Committee: Untying The Gordian knot, By Tunde Abatan
From all indications and practical demonstration of political will since he assumed office, there is no denying the fact that like Alexander the Great, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is determined to untie and rewrite the history of knotty problems and issues confronting the country since independence.
This time around, he may not have the bullish acumen of Alexandra who deployed political knife to cut through the knot, but he appears determined to ruffle not a few feathers in ensuring local government funds ‘hijacked’ over the years by greedy state governors.
The various state governors who have become emperors in their domain have since 1999 been cornering and sitting on local government funds using the umbilical cord represented by the state/local government joint account stipulated by the obnoxious provisions of 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Suffice to say that the Constitution itself with the passage of time has become a knot which Nigerians sooner than later will have to untie if it is to move forward towards solving its myriad and complex problems compounded by its cultural and ethnic diversity.
Leaders all over the world and through ages and time have different approaches towards solving knotty problems of Statism.
But since strategies and tactics differ from country to country, peculiarity of each country determines the strategy adopted by willing leaders determined to resolve problems.
Yours truly have always believed that President Tinubu has before the Supreme Court judgement evolved his own ways and strategies made up to ensure funds get to the grassroots which more than other tiers of government and social strata of the society bore the pains of his economic reforms.
However, it is significant to know that the immediate cause of Tinubu’s court action was the discovery that N5bn palliative and other funds disbursed to the 36 states to cushion the effects of his economic policies which pushed up prices of food items were cornered by ever greedy governors.
Hence, the Supreme Court judgement did for Tinubu what his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari lacked the political willpower and courage to do.
Besides, the Supreme Court ruling, Tinubu last week set up a 10-man committee headed by Senator George Akume, Secretary to the Federal government with Attorney General Lateef Fagbemi, Accountant General of the Federation and seven others as members.
Recall that following week after the judgement, Fagbemi had warned Local government Chairmen who got their long sought financial freedom through the Supreme Court, that they should remember they have no immunity.
In other words, Fagbemi is also telling the Chairmen on whom much is now expected in terms of grassroots development that financial recklessness, impunity and above all corruption will have no place in their new era of financial freedom.
By his warnings, Fagbemi may also be sending strong message to local and residents of the 774 local governments in the country to keep an eagle eye on their monthly allocations as disbursed by the Federation Account Allocation Committee.
Fagbemi’s admonition may also be a wakeup call on civil society organisations and state and non- state whistle blowers that a new job of monitoring and policing the financial activities of elected local councillors and Chairmen is now on their hands.
Furthermore, the Attorney Generals admonition may also be a surreptitious encouragement of opposition figures in the local governments to keep a close watch on their councils’ activities.
The fact that local government councils are the closest to the people, will make local elections keener and more people -oriented than before.
Since monthly allocations to federal, state and local governments are now published for all, a vital instrument for monitoring, policing and check-mating financials of the Councils is now in the public domain.
The chief beneficiaries of this are opposition candidates and political parties.
Another important Strategy to note in Tinubu’s self-appointed Task of getting local governments accountable is the proposals to set up a National Local Government Electoral Commission to conduct local government Elections.
Though proponents of Federalism are quick to point at its Unitarist nature, they may have lost sight of the intended deepening of the Democratic process by curbing penchant of state Governors to ‘select’ local government chairmen through their constituted State Independent Electoral Commission, SIEC.
It is an open secret that all over the country and among all the parties, SIEC has becomes the clearing house for imposing councillors and chairmen by ruling parties on the people by compromising the states electoral system.
The setting up of the Akume ten- man committee came few days last week after the FAAC announced the sharing of a Total of N1.358 trillion for the month of July among the three tiers of government.
According to the FAAC, the sharing is made up of N161.593 as statutory revenue, Value Added Tax of N582.307 billion; Electronic Money Transfer ETMTC, charge of N18.818bn; Exchange difference of N581,710 unsolid Minerals N13.647bn and Total Revenue of N2.613trn all in the month of July.
Out of the amount above, the Federal Government took N431.703bn out of the distributable N1.358 trn , 36 State’s got N473.477bn while the 774 local governments Councils got N343.703 and N109.816 bn representing 13% of Minerals revenue distribution as derivation revenue to the eligible state’s statutory revenue.
This revenue is part of the Federal government revenue sharing framework aimed at ensuring equitable resources distribution among the various levels of government.
That the 10- man Committee is coming this time is seen as a step further to police the monthly Allocations especially to the local governments. This is meant to achieve three objectives.
First, to ensure the Funds are directly released to the 774 local government thus removing the hands of the Governors; two that the committee will ensure that the Chairmen make judicious use of the Funds and thirdly that local governments perform their constitutionally assigned roles to the people who elected them into office.
Since the health of the 774 local governments is by inference the health of the country, the reason for this is not far -fetched.
Ordinarily, you may say there is no need for such an enforcement body after the Supreme Court judgement, but considering the peculiarity of Nigeria’s political and governance model, President Tinubu by right should be interested in the resources shared monthly getting to the grassroots for the betterment of the people for which he swore to provide good living condition and largely for political expediency.
There is no doubt the fact that if local government Funds are utilised in the respective local governments, the economy at the macro- level will receive tremendous boost through commensurate implementation of projects with its multiplier effect on the economy of the Councils.
Time is now that citizens at all levels should accept the roles of monitoring the activities of elected and appointed Public Officials while various Civil society and non- government organisations should assume a new and beneficial role of grassroots mobilizers and whistle blowers rather than being used as agents of politicians.
Since sole aim of politicians is to get power and largely to have the opportunity to get to use such powers in order to dip their hands in the till.
With the politics of re-election Campaign not far off, will Tinubu by this Akume committee be able to sustain his crusading role for local government financial Autonomy given the fact that most state Governors are apparently not at home with his financial autonomy crusading.
Will Tinubu be able to untie the Gordian knot by his relentless crusade on all fronts?
Time will Tell.
