By Kunle Awesu
Local government is the kitchen where delicious meals are prepared to feed the grassroots but for years,has been subjected to what can only be described as political amputation
Amputation of local government autonomy is a wounds inflicted quietly, repeatedly by the Governors and almost without protest by the people.A political amputation carried out in the full glare of the people,while those who should cry out have chosen silence.
Grassroots are the soil from which democratic governance is expected to grow. But a farmer cannot reasonably expect a healthy harvest where another person controls the seed, determines the water supply, dictates the fertilizer, controls the farm gate and ultimately decides who is permitted to harvest. Democratic institutions require cultivation, not political strangulation.
Law by the national Assembly may have changed the formula, but the governors still appear to control many of the variables. Until those variables are independently determined, local government autonomy risks remaining more of a theoretical construct than an observable reality.
Our village markets are in a state that is difficult to justify. Poorly maintained structures, inadequate drainage, deteriorating surfaces, insufficient sanitation facilities, and other infrastructural deficiencies reduce the functional capacity of these markets and negatively affect local economic activity.
Our primary schools are equally in a deplorable state. Some school buildings require urgent rehabilitation, while basic facilities and essential maintenance are inadequate. In several communities, headteachers have been compelled to appeal to school alumni and former students for assistance simply to address needs that should ordinarily fall within the responsibility of the Local government.
There is another uncomfortable truth we must confront. The people themselves can not completely escape responsibility. When local government elections are conducted citizens and opposition parties deliberately stay away with the misconception that the election has been pre determined by the governor. Through this,they created vacuum and political vacuum rarely remain empty, someone fills them.
When people boycott polls because they believe that the outcome has already been predetermined, their frustrations may be understandable, but the unintended consequences can be that a small number of politically organized actors determined who occupy the local government offices.
Sadly,the result is a vicious cycle the people loose faith in elections. They stop participating the political structure becomes stronger, the grassroots become easier to control. The people become more disillusioned and the same system they rejected becomes even more entrenched.
It is a very big tragedy when the citizens surrender their most powerful instrument, the ballot, because they have lost faith in the political process.
If democracy must truly reach the last man and woman in the remotest community, then the amputation must stop.The grassroots must be allowed to breathe again and the people must reclaim the government that was created in their name.
Democracy cannot survive when it’s citizens are passionate about presidential and govership elections but indifferent to what happens at the local government level.
The federal government does not repair every village road, the president does not manage every primary health center, even the governor does not manage every local market.The people encounter government first and most frequently at the grassroots
The time has therefore come for Nigerians to stop treating local government autonomy as a political slogan and start treating it as a democratic necessity
Kunle Awesu is an Akure-based Finance Expert…17/09/2026