The economic hardship in the country largely occasioned by an endless inflation regime is no longer news. What is probably news is how some Local Government Area (LGA) chairmen in the country have refused to allow their management of public funds to reflect the ‘heat’ suffered by the same people that voted them into office. The course of action of some of these chairmen does not truly represent the current realities of our national economy. This would be corroborated with a few recent examples in the next few paragraphs.
Late last year, precisely 2024, the Chairman of Igbo Etiti LGA in Enugu State, Eric Odo, appointed a Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Garden Egg and Pepper. He also appointed an SSA on Yam. The letters of appointment for the two appointees directed them to report to the office of the executive chairman of the LG for briefing and deployment.
We expect that the appointees would have since been briefed of their schedule of duties. However, we need to interrogate the relevance of this kind of appointment, which from the discernible motive behind it, is nothing other than what Nigerians today describe as ‘job for the boys.’ There maybe no harm in appointing people to assist the LG Chairman in different roles that would quicken the process of bringing development to the communities in their domains. The harm would be when a political appointment like that of the ‘SSA on Yam’ becomes ridiculous even in name.
A ludicrous feeling is equally prompted if communities in the LGA concerned cannot link the office of the SSAs with any of their basic needs. One would not be surprised if other LG chairmen in other parts of the country do not have SAs or SSAs on kolanut, rams, and naming or wedding ceremonies. As a leader that feels the pulse of his people, the LG chairman who appointed an SSA on yam should have had SSAs on health, education, water supply, tractor-hiring, sanitation and refuse dumb clearing.
A few weeks ago, another LG Chairman, this time in Kano State, Yusuf Imam, similarly appointed 60 persons to serve as his aides. The appointments were conveyed in letters signed by the secretary to the Nasarawa LG Council, Ado Muhammad, who said “the appointments are part of the chairman’s efforts to promote and develop the LGA.” The appointment letters dated January 6, 2025 described the appointees as “prominent individuals.” The appointees include 18 media aides to oversee different departments, markets, and primary healthcare centres within the LGA. Other appointees include executive assistants, chief details, public affairs I and II, chief protocol officers, principal personnel secretary, and eight directors- general, among others.
For Allah’s sake, 60 aides for a LG Chairman are on the high side given the cost implications of the remunerations and entitlements which the appointees are expected to draw from the LG treasury; more so as essential social services are lacking in rural communities for which the LG tier of government exists. Eighteen media aides are enough to run a radio station. Having many chief details serving one boss at the same time could also be a recipe for conflict of commands. Some of the appointments would have been okay if majority of the residents of Nasarawa LGA in Kano state hitherto had access to basic social amenities.
Drawing up the schedule of duties for appointees such as directors-general and executive assistants could be tasking. The fear in this kind of appointments is the likelihood of some of the SSAs over-stepping on the routine duties of career civil servants, either to impress their Oga or to show those who care how powerful they are in their Oga’s administration. In either case, extant rules that define due process would often be abused; deliberately or out of ignorance. Sometimes, the over-enthusiastic SSAs would cross the borders defined by their functions and even take over the jobs of career LG workers who, out of fear, would awfully abandon their official schedules for the chairman’s political appointees; all for the sake of averting possible persecutions if they dare the SSAs. This is how career LG staffs are rendered redundant against their wish.
A few days after the Nasarawa LG Chairman in Kano State appointed 60 aides, his counterpart and one of his brazen admirers in Rivers State, the Chairman of Obio-Akpor LGA, Chijioke Ihunwo, appointed 130 special assistants to help drive his administration. It would be recalled that in July 2024, when Ihunwo was caretaker committee chairman of Obio-Akpor LGA, he appointed 100 special assistants.
The appointment of SAs, SSAs and other appointees seems to be a growing trend among LG Chairmen. This is happening when most rural communities in the country lack access to basic necessities of life including well-equipped primary healthcare facilities, clean water, schools, and roads. The funds that would be expended on these political appointees as remunerations for their ‘services’ some of which cannot sufficiently be justified could, where there’s will, be utilized to improve the living conditions of the people which the LG structure was founded to cater for. One would be surprised if any of the three LGAs mentioned in this piece has a refuse disposal truck in its fleet of official vehicles. Meanwhile, less would be spent by government on public health if LG chairmen pay adequate attention to waste management and disposal. Many infectious diseases in rural communities would have been prevented.
In other climes, democracy exists to enshrine good governance. In Nigeria, partisan politicians have in recent years re-defined the word ‘governance’, making it sound like a relative term. Governance is now measured by how much a public office holder (elected or appointed) could bend or violate laid-down procedures either for self-aggrandizement or for a select group interests.
We urge LG chairmen in the country to fear Allah in the management of public funds under their care especially now that they are beginning to enjoy full financial autonomy and liberation from the State/LG Joint Account. May Allah inspire LG to fear Allah and see their office as a public trust, amin.
