The Chairman of the Cross River State Council of Chiefs, HRM Etinyin Etim Okon Edet, has called on the federal government to prioritise local government autonomy and opined that traditional rulers should be considered recipients of security votes.
The monarch, who described the local government system as a training ground for future politicians, noted that prioritising and allowing it to carry out its initial functions will help reduce the level of insecurity in the country.
In an interview with reporters, he highlighted a number of issues related to traditional and political issues, especially those related to local government autonomy and insecurity.
He advocates that since traditional rulers are closest to the people and perhaps know everyone in the community, they should be considered major stakeholders in the allocation of security votes.
Although the Constitution strictly provides for the local government system, especially the strengthening of government and administration at the grassroots level, the political class has not yet reached a consensus on the status of local governments across the country.
“The security votes are not in the hands of these traditional rulers; they are in the hands of the new breed, but when anything happens, the first person the chairman or governor will call is the traditional ruler, so why are the security votes not getting to where they’re supposed to?
“Insecurity will abate in this country if we put back local government to its effective use, even minimal use. As we are now, the local government system has been erased from my memory.
All over Nigeria, nobody is thinking about his locality; everybody is thinking about the state; they only go to local government areas during elections.
So it depends on the federal government and the state government to open up the local government system and allow it to run normally.
“The point is not about constitutional role; from time immemorial, traditional rulers and institutions have had their unwritten roles; what they are looking for is physical responsibility, which is funding that role they had before.
We are the owners of local government, and government at the federal and state levels should leave local government to the owners.
He considered it undemocratic for state governments in the country to continue to erode the authority and functions of local government by introducing a temporary administrative system, stressing that this, in a purely democratic context, is a deviation from the principles of Federalism.
“The key to ending insecurity lies in the hands of traditional rulers. The government should not just look at politicians by buying them big cars and then forget about traditional rulers. They’ve neglected the old ways.
“No traditional ruler will say that he does not know a bad person in his community; we know everyone in the community, but nowadays it is difficult for him to tell the security agencies that he is a bad person because they will go and tell the person, and the return will be on you. That was how my village head was killed in Bakassi, he lamented.
Meanwhile, he commended the governor for meeting the expectations of the people in a short period of time and appealed to the state government to provide a level playing ground for contested officials in the upcoming local government elections.
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