2015 ELECTIONS: NIGERIANS BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA

Democratic governance has as one of its beauties, the conferment of the right to choose who governs, on the people, and most often, even when the elections are rigged, they are skewed in the direction of the majority of the people. That position may be contestable, anyway.

December 2014 is running as fast as its legs could carry it to open the door for Year 2015, the year I called, year of great decision for Nigerians. The question as to whether we will get it right as a people hangs in the balance because even the “getting-it-right” is right now, a relatively personal issue. This is because the choice as to which is better between the two major contending parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) is, to every discerning mind, not better than a gamble.

Interestingly, I believe by a stroke of fate to prove my point above that the decision to choose any of PDP and APC in the coming general elections remains a gamble, the debate for local government financial and political autonomy resurfaced barely four months to the general elections. After the two chambers of the National Assembly had jointly passed the bill, it was transferred to the states for the constitutionally required 2/3 endorsement from the state Houses of Assembly.

Regrettably however, 23 states went against, killed and buried the bill. They are: Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Kebbi, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, Rivers, Cross-River, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Akwa-Ibom, Enugu and Imo states. Their flimsy reasons to stifle life out of the people they are eating (not serving) are anchored on the following: irregularities in the bill, lack of sustainability of the proposed autonomy and immaturity of the local governments to be left unchecked by the state legislature.

Interestingly, all the states mentioned above who voted against the people are divided between the two leading contending parties, PDP & APC. Meanwhile, a state like Anambra, controlled by a small party, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, voted in favour of the bill.

For the avoidance of doubt, without local government autonomy, the rampaging poverty, infrastructural decay, rural-urban migration, unemployment and other societal problems would continue unabated. That is the matter in this case. These states’ governors and their Houses of Assembly members know these facts, but felt unconcerned since their own nests are being well-feathered from our collective till.

My concern is how I will go out in February 2015 to either re-vote a party, to whom my plight is nothing, or newly vote into power, a party, to whom my breakthrough must, at best, remain a mirage. Let me worthily mention it that all these state Houses of Assembly voted in favour of financial autonomy for the Houses of Assembly; meaning that they have more money for themselves, and they have it as at when due, directly from source without any undue interference from the governors. However, that part that would further and better acquaint the people with the dividends of democracy was not only vehemently, but also unanimously opposed.

Nigerians, behold your two messiahs. Choose for yourselves, whichever you preferred: the devil or the deep sea?