By KENNETH DARENG
Since the return to civil rule in 1999, Plateau State, like the other 36 states of the federation, has witnessed one form of administration or another at the third tier, either under an elected dispensation or a Transition Management Committee. However, its operators within the local government system appear to share a common curse of falling from grace to grass.
Checks carried out by THE NGERIA STANDARD have shown that 90 percent of Chairmen, Councilors, or Management officials who served in the state at one point or another, shortly after ending their tenure, suffer the same fate of living in obscurity.
It beggars belief to witness an individual who had enjoyed the perks of office as a highly placed local government official, who had at least gathered some level of financial stability, with a network of friends and wide connections within the political and business spectrum, return to a life far worse than when he or she entered office.
While some have maintained a very low profile, others have gone into hiding out of shame to avoid public bashing and embarrassment. Some of the luckier ones have picked up the pieces of their lives and moved on by aligning with political parties as a way of finding relevance and succour.
A clear example is that of a former chairman of a local government in the northern senatorial zone of the state, who displayed a mild drama in one of the commercial banks in Jos a few years ago. He had gone to the bank to withdraw the sum of three thousand naira, but the cashier informed him that he could not withdraw such due to insufficient funds.
He insisted that he needed all the cash to attend to an urgent problem but the cashier advised him to see the manager about the possibility of closing his account, as the balance he had was exactly the amount he wanted to withdraw. After a shouting bout with the cashier, he stormed out of the bank, unbothered by the fact that people who knew him had witnessed the episode.
Another case is that of a former two-term chairman of a local government in Plateau Central, who is now a bookseller in one of the local markets. What about the case of a leader of a local government legislative arm who had many wives and owned five heavy-duty trucks that brought in a good income, in addition to other businesses? Today, all that has vanished, and he is now struggling to feed his family as a blacksmith in front of his house in the neighbourhood.
Similarly, a former leader of another legislative arm, who enjoyed the spoils of office and was said to have acquired several choice properties within his local council area and beyond, reportedly sold virtually everything within a year of leaving office and ended up being a truck driver in a remote village of his local government area.
Unfortunately, these kinds of sorry situations have not abated, as more officials continue to fall into the same pitfall of falling from grace to grass, from one government to another. Particularly affected are those who incurred more enemies than friends, or those who ran a one-man show and are now paying the price, just as the popular Nigerian saying goes: “you eat alone and die alone.”
The same ugly stories can be told of many grassroots politicians who, after leaving office, have become liabilities to their families and communities. Some are now errand boys to their political contemporaries, some are taxi drivers while others are glorified messengers or party thugs scavenging for stipends and low-level positions as an alternative for surviving the harsh socio-economic realities of life.
However, with the recently concluded Chairmanship and Councillorship elections conducted by the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) on October 9, 2024, across the 17 local government areas of the state, the pressing questions are: how can these elected officials avoid the same fate as their predecessors and will posterity be fair to them after they leave office? All will be revealed in the coming three years.
Perhaps it is time for political office holders, particularly at the grassroots, to look back and reflect on why most people who served at that tier of government have often found themselves on the same pathway of misery, shame and disgrace.
Maybe this is the time to interrogate the conscience of political actors and to seek ways of holding them more accountable for the Oath they swore at the beginning of their tenure and for their actions while in office.
For too long, local government administration in the state, which is expected to be the closest to the people at the grassroots, has been reduced to a glorified department of the state. Here, chairmen are nicknamed ‘sharemen,’ due to how funds are mismanaged and appropriated without following basic financial rules and regulations.
Despite the rhetoric from the political class, leadership at the local government level has done little to rein in endemic corruption and bad governance, which have crippled development and eroded the confidence of the rural people in relying on the councils to provide basic necessities such as potable drinking water, electricity, good roads and primary healthcare and educational facilities.
While local government corruption is a national malaise in Nigeria, Plateau State is no exception. For instance, several years ago, the chairmen of the 17 local government councils, through the Joint Account Allocation Committee (JAAC), purchased tractors for hire by farmers, but they were allegedly diverted to private use. Similarly, borehole drilling machines purchased for each council area are unaccounted for today.
In addition, five brand-new Hilux vehicles purchased through JAAC for each local government council to assist in fighting insecurity under the SURE-P Programme remain unaccounted for. Most of these vehicles were allegedly shared among the chairmen. This endemic mismanagement and corruption, apart from being a hindrance to progress in the state, has also fuelled democratic backsliding, communal conflicts and widespread poverty.
If local government officials routinely enrich themselves at the expense of the poorest in society, especially given the huge increase in monthly statutory allocations running into hundreds of millions, these actions may likely attract divine wrath and curses from God.
Corruption is not the only factor for local government dysfunction. Rampant cases of contract fraud, bribery and kickbacks, ghost worker syndrome, slush funds, favouritism, lack of innovation and blueprints and gross incompetence all contribute to the councils’ backwardness.
The kleptocratic capture of local government funds, orchestrated in the past by state governors in collaboration with the legislature, and rigged local government elections are dangerous trends the grassroots leadership must be wary of, given the serious future implications for the system’s operators.
To avoid these pitfalls, local governments must begin to search regularly for ghost workers, focus more on transparency and accountability, and adopt people-oriented leadership aimed at meaningful progress and development.
Political office holders at the local level should streamline policies that propel infrastructural development comparable to global standards. For instance, in countries like the United States and parts of Europe, local councils play a crucial role in development. They not only dictate their autonomy but are self-sustaining and, in many cases, wealthier than some African nations.
Though there have been many attempts in the past to reform the local government system, these efforts have not yielded positive results and have exacerbated government weakness, even at the state level. The only solution now is for the new administration to introduce measures to combat the cancer of corruption and focus on good governance.
Furthermore, the newly elected council officials under the leadership of Barrister Caleb Mutfwang must draw inspiration from his leadership qualities and align with the policy direction of the state administration to meet the expectations of the people.
Now is the time for councils to initiate projects capable of generating revenue, rather than over-relying on monthly handouts from the federation account.
With the autonomy granted to the 774 local government councils in Nigeria, a new vista of opportunities opens for the councils in Plateau State to showcase a new era of purposeful leadership and good governance where posterity will be kind to all who offer themselves for selfless service to their motherland.