The Government at Grassroots Level Should Be More Questioned, Rather Than the FG

It’s no longer news that the secretary to the government of the federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, who is also the chairman of the Presidential task force on COVID19 on October 2021, said he never knew Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure was in such a bad state. He said, “I can tell you for sure, I never knew that our entire healthcare infrastructure was in the state in which it is until I was appointed to do this work.”

This statement generated a lot of reactions and comments from Nigerians but I asked myself, “Why the surprise?” This has been part of the abnormalities we face in Nigeria or do people truly believe the government officials at the Federal level hear our daily cries?? Well, some say it is because of the complexity of a country with diversity that’s why the state is broken down into federating units.

Most of the ‘Ogas at the top’ have little or no knowledge about what the citizens at the grassroots are going through and that is why Nigeria’s modern Local Government system started with the Local Government Reform in 1976 bestowing some responsibility to cater and bring democratic development down to the grassroots. The 1999 constitution made it clearer what is expected of the local authorities. They are to:
Provide houses for the people in need; how many house(s) or when last do we hear that a local government provide houses for the citizens even when there is a cause to build some?
They are also to provide citizens with basic social amenities like roads, streets, drains, and public places.
Ensuring the proper functioning of the Educational System, the Agricultural sector, and Medical care.

Now, can we ask ourselves how our local government authorities are performing? If you’re to rate them on a scale of 10, what will be their grade? Oh! Some said how will they get the money? Well, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) gives a detailed report as released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2019 that a total sum of N616.20billion was disbursed in May 2019 to all the three tiers of government i.e the Federal, State and Local Government. The State government received a total of N168.06billion while the Local Government received N126.28billion. Can any local government account for her own share?

This is why I think we need to start spending more energy in questioning our Ward’s councilor, local government chairman, members of the state house of assembly, the national assembly both the reps and senators and our state governors. All these legislators don’t only make laws, they equally get constituent project funds. Like seriously, where are all the projects awarded and funded to the benefits of various constituencies through the state or national assembly?? These are questions begging for answers.

When protests are staged against the federal government, Federal agencies offices must be the venue, news media needs to be present so as to truly send the messages to the world (simply saying, If you stage a protest without a newspaper publication or presence or you go to all these federal government offices in a state, nobody will be aware of such protest) and that even does not guarantee that the Ogas at the top will get our messages, because if truly they have been getting all agitations about the bastardized state of our health sector over the years, then I don’t expect Mr. Mustapha to be shocked.

“If the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do?” If we can’t make these local government authorities account for their doings now I don’t think we’ll be able to control or have an influence on them when they are given full autonomy. The time is now for us to make things right!

Oluwaseun Ayobami Odetunde
oluwaseunodetunde@yahoo.com
Twitter: @SeunAyo_

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