It might be recalled that the May 5, 1998, local government elections broke the military domination and ushered in democratic governance in Nigeria. On July 24 of this year, the country again conducted nationwide local government chairmanship elections.
The African Foundation for Peace and Love Initiatives (AFPLI) has always advocated for free, fair, and peaceful conduct of elections in Nigeria. We wish the successfully elected incoming local government chairmen and chairwomen a fruitful tenure in office, irrespective of their political party, religion, creed, or ideological affiliations. We would now like to focus the message of this article on what matters.
- Work for the Local People and Your Local Constituency
Remember that you were elected by your local people and local constituency. You may never have been successful at this election in the first place if you have not identified with your own people and your own constituency. Understand the needs and problems and do everything you can to meet their needs and solve their problems. There is a saying that “A light bulb will shine its light on its sphere or circumference of influence.” Your own people and constituency are your sphere of influence. While your local government is not expected to be an island in isolation from the other 598 local governments in the nation, your primary responsibility and accountability are to your local people and your local constituency.
2. Improve and Impact the Schools and Sources of Education in Your Local Government
Kudos to every local government chairman and chairwoman who improves and impacts every possible avenue to support the education of children, youth, and women. We encourage local governments all over the country to increase their education budgets to improve and impact the provisions of primary and secondary school education at public and private levels. Let the children in your local government constituencies have a feel
for your presence and tenure of chairmanship and leadership. I would like to paraphrase a statement attributed to Marthe Troly-Curtin in her 1911 book Phrynette Married that resources invested in training children are never wasted. Children tend to be the largest demographic in most societies. Local government chairmen and leadership should pay more attention to education and development at the grassroots to impact the youthful populace.
3. Help the Farmers in Your Local Governments
There is no doubt that this is an extremely trying and perilous time for agrarian farmers, both small scale and large scale, all over Nigeria, particularly in the southwest, southeast, and south-central of the country. This is a time to talk and not to fight. Collectively and jointly, the local government bodies of chairmen and chairwomen should make a case to the State and Federal Government to find the lasting solution and resolve the conflicts between agrarian farmers and nomadic herders. Agriculture remains one of the most viable opportunities for employment and economic breakthrough. Local governments should invest big in agriculture and encourage its citizens to work the farms. Local government authorities should come to the rescue of farmers. Local government authorities, working with the state and federal government, could regulate and create zones for agrarian farmers and animal husbandries. Government agencies can own large farming lands and allocate and hire farming fields to the populace. Local governments can invest in large-scale farming and make available large-scale-farming implements for employment and revenue generation.
4. Take a Balanced Approach to Religion
As an organization promoting proactive grassroots peacebuilding for ethnoreligious and ethnopolitical harmony, we call on our newly elected and honorable local government chairmen and chairwomen to do everything possible to balance religion in their constituencies. Perhaps, the best way to appreciate ourselves as a people is to see our diverse religious expressions as coming from God for a balanced, God-fearing life. Someone once said: “A person without religion is like a horse without a bridle.” As leaders, we should see the presence of religious houses of worship and religious leaders in our local government and local constituents as community institutions for harmony and not for disharmony. Through our various religious inclinations, we should all learn to participate in the family of God by tolerating one another. If the same God who gave me my religion is the same God who gave you your religion, we should learn to participate together in that community under the dominion of God.
5. Be Environmentally Conscious
The newly elected local government leaders ought to realize that they owe a debt to the natural environment and are therefore accountable for the improvement of their local governments and constituencies. Almost anywhere in the country, the inner roads and byways are deplorable. Federal and state roads fair worse because of gross neglect of interstate and federal roads. It is pathetic to see what awaits or greets you immediately once you exit those federal and state roads. Leaders of the local governments should establish departments of natural resources and operate tourists’ attraction centers across the local government areas and invest in them for employment and revenue generation purposes. Local governments can also make investment in estate development by creating new neighborhoods for residential, commercial, and educational purposes. Doing these things will result in sustainable development within the local government that could result in employment and revenue generations. Recreation and relaxation centers in the midst of nature should be available at affordable prices for members of the public, families, and visitors to the local government areas.
6. Enhance Peace and Security
Peace and security have costs just as insecurity, war, and violence have costs. It is erroneous to believe that security resources should be applied merely in fighting crimes and policing the neighborhoods for law and order. Such an approach results only in negative peace enforcement, which misses out on positive, proactive grassroots peacebuilding. Local governments should partner with religious institutions, schools, businesses, community leaders, and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) like AFPLI to promote positive peacebuilding in the local government areas. The state of the Nigerian nation today tends to be violence prone and insurgency sympathetic. Cases of kidnapping and mugging for ransom are rampart and escalating on a daily basis. No part of the country is spared these brutalities. Schools and schoolchildren are often the hardest hit. Though national security is the prerogative of the federal government, states and local governments can more efficaciously engage in human security by coming to the rescue of their own people who are targeted by kidnappers, bandits, and hoodlums.
7. Accommodate Outsiders
This request may seem odd to some people, but yet it is paramount to the robust development of our local government area because the skills and ideas needed to develop the local government may at times come from outside sources. Just as interstate businesses and interactions are encouraged, so also inter-local governments’ resourcefulness should be encouraged and made easy. Citizens’ relocation from one local government entity to another should be encouraged. Internet and the worldwide web (www) have made global business much more feasible than in decades past. The leadership of our local governments should help the indigenes of their government use Internet services to promote inter-local businesses for employment and revenue generation.
8. Build and Develop Public Institutions
Public institutions are such institutions that serve the community and the populace irrespective of their tribe, creed, religion, or even state of origin. In these categories are our police stations, institutions of higher education, hospitals, court systems, and so on. Though these public institutions could belong to the state and federal governments, local government should identify with those located in their local government areas by making sure the public institutions serve the needs of the local people, including training for skills that could enhance and improve employment opportunities and revenue generation for the local people. Our local governments should partner with the state and federal governments to establish first responders and trauma centers. Even local governments can establish their own first responders, including firefighting and disaster-ameliorating centers, adequately staffed with professionals.
9. Stand Up and Stand Out for Who You and Your Local Government Are
At the time of this article, Nigeria has 598 local governments, and many more are upcoming or being contemplated for political reasons and administrative expediency. One thing that has agitated my mind for a long time is the fact that, despite the great potential for human resourcefulness packaged into these 598 local governments, little real development has been realised. In Nigeria, we pay a lot of prices, but unfortunately, there isn’t much actual development to show for these expenditures. To be sure, there is a price to pay for development. The local government that is to pay the right prices for development should stand up and stand out. As the chairman of a unique local government, you have to stand up and stand out for who you are and for what your local government is.
10. Wisely Use Your Power of Communication
Your power is in communication. Recognize always that power resides in the community for development. Without communication there will be no community. A community where there is no communication would continue to lose opportunities for robust development. There is no way you can spell the word: “community” or “opportunity” without writing “unity.” Negative outliers and extremists are banes to the community hegemony. Like the fisher’s net, your local government and her communities should be the dragnet for development. Just as fishers need to wash, mend, and clean their nets regularly and consistently, local governments should, by design, have the skills to keep the dragons away from your local government community. That calls for local intelligence operations. That’s where a strong police and citizens communitarian relationship is of utmost paramount. Get your local government working and keep it working, by communicating opportunities for development.
11. Honor Traditions and Cultures
All work and no play, they say, makes Jack a dull boy and Jane a weak girl. In Nigeria and other countries of Africa, we are a traditional and cultural people. We communicate through our traditions and cultures. We resolve conflicts through our traditions and cultures. We maintain the justice system through our tradition and customs. There is so much that we do through our traditions and cultures, such as respect for elders, gender roles, and community development. Let us celebrate and utilize our rich traditions and cultures.
12. Be the Master Strategist and Silent Revolutionist for Peacebuilding
Finally, be the master strategist and silent revolutionist for your local government. The ultimate goal of a master strategist and silent revolutionist is twofold: proactive peacebuilding and community development. Stand up and stand out for peacebuilding and development in Nigeria. At our organization, we will work with you to achieve the above listed goals. If you are interested, we invite you and your local government to participate in various annual contests organized by AFPLI to test your local government contributions to the grassroots proactive peacebuilding for ethnoreligious and ethnopolitical harmony encompassing all 12 points in this article.