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Emmanuel Onwubiko
Two things happened on May 6 about the same time but in two different locations in Nigeria that perfectly addresses the burning issue of widespread insecurity in Nigeria.
But an observer of events in contemporary Nigeria needs to either develop the nose for news like a professional journalist would ordinarily be required to possess or you become a deeply reflective analyst with the gift of what the Greeks called EPIKEIA or the sixth sense to be able to decode the security import of these two wholly unrelated scenarios that played out in Katsina and Abuja, respectively.
I begin from what is near to what is far or from the part to the whole as logic experts would.
In Katsina state, the Emir of Katsina pointedly asked the visiting Federal government delegation to inform President Muhammadu Buhari that there is general breakdown of law and order in Katsina and that the state needs security. We will narrate the comprehensive version of these intriguing episodes.
In Abuja, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) -a newly created financial intelligence gathering agency that plays pivotal role in the anti-graft crusade in the country, issued a guideline banning financial institutions from releasing money recklessly from the joint state/local government account if such money has not reached the specific account of such stated local government area councils. We will return shortly to this piece of information. But permit me to call for the abolition of this so-called joint state/local council account. Just before digressing, I alluded to the check and balance that the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit has put in place to watch over local government’s fund from being stolen by governors. So this is where the nexus between the two events occurs: the traditional institution is the nearest to the grassroots.
The people who reside at the grassroots constitute nearly sixty percent of the entire Nigerian population. But the economic wellbeing of the local government area councils is not sound.
This means that poverty is more in the local areas than it is in the urban centers. Recall that recently the global poverty index pointed towards Nigeria as becoming the emerging global capital of poverty with over 90 million of the estimated 200 million Nigerians living in absolute poverty. Nigeria took over from India which has twenty times the size of our population. Also, poverty means that there is a serious gap in food security and even human security. Nigeria faces food insecurity; human insecurity and border area’s insecurity.
The statement of fact made by the Emir of Katsina regarding insecurity in the state, indirectly points to the general breakdown of security in the local government councils which accommodates the greatest number of Nigerians. Now, the Abuja development which is about the salutary order made by the National financial intelligence unit seeking to provide safeguards to monitor the spending of local government accrued resources , if meticulously implemented, has the potential of addressing the hydra-headed crisis of poverty and insecurity that afflicts the local governments.
One of the quickest ways of checking the high incidence of insecurity related events such as kidnappings and banditry across the country is for the governing class in conjunction with the civil society to demonstrate practical will power to restore autonomy and workability to the local councils. It is a fact that if the local government areas are enabled to become functional as it were, then the bulk of the poverty and crime related issues that we see will inevitably be checked.
Worried that insecurity has impeded development in the rural areas, the Emir of Katsina, Alhaji, Abdulmumuni Kabir, urged the Federal Government to gather the courage and enforce the law on bandits and other criminal elements in the country. Kabir stated this while receiving the Federal Government delegation that came to condole the Government and people of Katsina State over the death of Justice Mamman Nasir on Monday in Katsina. “The Federal Government should stand up and find criminals who have been terrorizing innocent people. “The Government should give security agencies the mandate to deal with criminals squarely. “The lack of the complete enforcement of the law had given armed robbers, Kidnappers and other criminal elements the chance to be disturbing members of the public. “The traditional institutions are ready to support and encourage security agents to flush out criminals from their hideouts’’ Conversely, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) issued guidelines to stimulate the reduction of crime vulnerabilities created by cash withdrawals from local government funds across the country.
Acting Chief Media Analyst of NFIU, Ahmed Dikko, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Monday. He announced that the effective date for operation of the guidelines was June 1. He urged all financial institutions, relevant stakeholders, public servants and citizens to ensure full compliance with the provisions of the guidelines which had already been submitted to the institutions. “The guidelines include full enforcement of corresponding sanctions against violations,” he stated. Mr. Dikko said that cash withdrawal and transactions from State Joint Local Government Accounts (SJLGA) “posed (the) biggest corruption, money laundering and security threats at the grassroots and to (the) entire financial system and the country. He said, “with this analysis, the unit decided to uphold the full provisions of Section 162 (6) and (8) of the 1999 Constitution.
“State Joint Local Government Account shall be paid in, allocations to the local government councils of the state from the Federation Account and from the government of the state. “The amount standing to the credit of local government councils of a state shall be distributed among the local government councils of that state and not for the other purposes. “As far as the NFIU is concerned, the responsibility of the account as a collection account is fully reinstated.”
This August body known as NFIU must bark and bite by empowering credible community-based, religious and Non-governmental organizations with the knowledge about periodic accruals to local government councils and provide capacity building facelifts to these non-governmental organizations to partner effectively with the Federal Government to provide strict oversight on the use of these resources.
However, since the inception of the 1999 constitution, the local government area councils have become the cesspools of corruption whereby the state governors arbitrary steals from the funds that ought to accrue to these entities from the federation accounts and even the internally generated revenues of these councils are stolen. Auditors are also part of this corruption schemes. The result of corruption in the local government areas is that the wealth redistribution becomes skewed in favour of only those who are exercising political authorities in the state capitals and the nation’s capitals.
This is the fundamental cause of the insecurity we see in the local government areas which have ripple effects across board. To underscore the importance of the local government areas, the United Nations offices for public administration says that local government is : “a political subdivision of a nation or (in a federal system) state, which is constituted by law and has substantial control of local affairs, including the powers to impose taxes or to exact labor for prescribed purposes.
The governing body of such an entity is elected or otherwise locally selected”. Nigerian Constitution in section 7(1) defines democratic election as the only legal means of setting up local council authorities.
To be concluded tomorrow
Onwubiko heads Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA)
