By S. O. K. Shillings Esq.
The House of Representatives has made a proposition to validate the 37 LCDAs in Lagos State as authentic local governments. There is also the news that some northern youths have kicked against it vowing to not let it sail or otherwise the northern states should have increased local governments too.
In recent times, the North has chosen to speak through some unknown factors nicknamed ‘northern youths’. They are not registered organizations or known personalities and northern elders never condemn them even when some of their utterances threaten corporate Nigeria. We should take their words as the position of the Northern Nigeria.
I think it was time we educated ourselves on some issues in our coexistence; this Lagos State Local Government Bill as one. Governor Bola Tinubu (as he then was) created the 37 LCDAs in Lagos State. It failed at the National Assembly because it could not receive required support. It became a cause of rift between the State and the Federal Government headed then by President Olusegun Obasanjo nose-balling into a legal tussle whence the process was declared ‘inchoate’. Now, the files have been dusted to actualise it.
Note that the creation of states and local governments were done during military regimes dominated by northerners and the distribution were at all times in favour of the North. We started with 3 regions and Lagos as a federal capital. It became 4 with the addition of Mid-west, the north being just one region. Today, the north is 19 states while the south is 17. There are about 55% of the local governments in the north.
Lagos State was created on same day as Kano in 1967. As at 1991, there were 24 local governments in Kano whilst Lagos had 20. Today, Kano has become 2 states with combined 71 local governments while Lagos remains one with 20 local governments.
Lagos was Federal Capital Territory until it was moved to Abuja. Despite it being a natural leading commercial hub of the country, it does not enjoy a special status which has been mouthed over time but no serious effort has been made. The state did not even enjoy the inheritance of the structures and infrastructure left by the Federal Government.
The pressure on Lagos with the population is enormous. I was in Jigawa sometime ago. I stayed in a place 10 minutes drive to the State Secretariat. Within that space we encountered only about a dozen vehicles going to the secretariat on a Thursday morning; please compare Lagos. The point here is that the infrastructural demand in Lagos is enormous. If such road in Jigawa could last a century, a similar one in Lagos will do well to survive a decade. It is in same light that demands of local governments in Lagos State is higher. Is it market, refuse management, primary health care, local roads and other infrastructure..? It is not a mere demand, it is one for Nigeria to develop the place where it does most of its little businesses.
I feel bad that the Lagos State Government has not taken the issue of special status seriously. Special Status encompasses special consideration in resource allocation, number of local governments, special infrastructure and attention in dealing with the scourge of nature with our commercial capital drifting below sea level. That negligence is a national disaster.
It is not a time for jamboree requests. I am not a lover of balkanization of polity to satisfy our office and title quests like the debate for creation of more states and even local governments to spend so much to govern so little when the United States of America, nine times the size of Nigeria and an economy in multiple hundreds fold of Nigeria’s has only 52 states. It is just that Lagos deserves more. If the number is any concern, then, let us triple the allocations. But it is about closeness of government, supervision and ideas.
Lagos is a miniature Nigeria. Its matter should be viewed from a Nigerian lens. Now, we do not bid to host major sporting championships even when South Africa has hosted the world cup. Lagos State needs better development. Alaba Rago should be better if Oto-Awori and Iba become substantive local governments with direct allocations as Ojo local government.
I enjoin the Governor of Lagos State to compliment the effort of the parliamentarians who sponsored the bill by ensuring better education on the need for more local governments for Lagos State. The proper time to seek for special status is now, not only because Mr. President has ruled Lagos before and should understand the demography better than other people, but the avoidable consequences of the negligence is telling on Nigeria and Nigerians living in Lagos.
Olushosun refuse dumping site is an accident waiting to happen and just being managed. There are evidences of likelihood of dangerous flood and the continuing threat of the submerge of Lagos is no secret in public domain. Odogun water spill brought President Goodluck Jonathan to Lagos on emergency. The bridges are weakening while the fourth mainland bridge should not just be an electoral promise but a necessity. To repair independence bridge is difficult because of the traffic congestion.
The old national Secretariat at Ikoyi is lying wasted just as the old National Assembly complex and Tafawa Balewa Square while Lagos does not have enough courtrooms and judges thus causing congestion and consequential injustice. It is the state that suffers from protests and riots.
The authentication of those local governments is just an aspect of the bigger picture of the need to make Lagos State a better place as a matter of national responsibility. It is an issue for all of us!
S. O. K. Shillings Esq., writes from Ikorodu
