From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has vowed to strengthen its scrutiny on Local Government Councils, especially now that they have been granted financial autonomy.
EFCC Chairman, Mr. Olanipekun Olukoyede, stated this at a national dialogue organised by Agora Policy, with the support of MacArthur Foundation. The event themed “Enthroning Accountability in Local Government in Nigeria”, held in Abuja on Monday.
Speaking through Friday Ebelo, the EFCC chairman said that good governance requires accountability, transparency, and active citizen participation. He noted that for citizen engagement to be impactful and for accountability and transparency to be truly effective, it is essential to have dedicated and principled individuals in key positions.
He said: “To me, good governance entails three critical elements which have to do with accountability, transparency and citizen participation. And for citizen participation to be effective and for accountability and transparency to be effective, we need to have solid-minded people, developmental-minded people to man our local government administrations.
“It is on this note that we serve, the EFCC serves a notice to the local government administration. It will not be business as usual, the activities will be scrutinised. We must make sure it’s a deliberate effort that we can bring the presence of governance to our people.
“The citizens must feel the presence of governance and local government, health care centres and schools. We must be able to see that this development is driven to the local public. It is on this note that I want to thank the organisers for inviting us here.
I want to thank you all and look forward to a fruitful collaboration.”
Founder of Agora Policy, Waziri Adio, also highlighted the urgent need for reform in rural governance.
He pointed out that, although local government areas are tasked with essential responsibilities, they are not living up to those expectations.
Adio called for greater awareness, engagement, and accountability, emphasizing the importance of repairing the fractured representative government by directly involving citizens in the decision-making process.
According to Adio, “Local government areas are the least trusted, least equipped, and least engaging for the public.”
“Only 28 percent of citizens trusted local government administration, down from 58 per cent in 2000,” he cited from Afrobarometer’s 2008 survey.
“We need to increase awareness, engagement, and accountability. This requires vertical, horizontal, and diagonal accountability mechanisms.”
He added that : “We are not discussing the merits and demerits of the judgment of the Supreme Court.
As far as we are concerned, the highest court of the land has ruled, so we cannot investigate that matter. It’s already a decided issue. So what we are gathered here to discuss is how to ensure that our local government areas work better, as conceived and as they should be.”