State Houses Of Assembly Peopled With ‘Passive’ Loyalists Of Governors –Foreign Affairs Minister

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has alleged that state houses of assembly in the country are peopled with ‘passive’ loyalists of the state governors while calling this a worrisome development.

The state lawmakers, he added, do readily  neglect their duty of providing checks and balances and making  the executive arm of government accountable. 

Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Tugar said this while delivering a keynote speech titled ‘Pathways to Peace, Security and Stability in the Sahel: What Role for Nigeria?’  during an event that was held at the Nigeria Intelligence Agency Headquarters , Abuja on Tuesday.

Tuggar added  that a system has been put in place to promote loyal local government chairmen to the state House of Assembly, ensuring  that they wouldn’t challenge any action or step taken by their governors . 

‘Many states don’t even bother with elections. The governors simply appoint loyalists as sole administrators of LGs. A system has been perfected through which a loyal LGA Chairman is promoted to the state House of Assembly, where he would not dare challenge the perspective of the governor. 

In reality, state Houses of Assembly are packed with passive loyalists that fail in their duty of providing checks and balances on the executive arm. They also fail in looking out for the interest of their local government areas’ he said.

The minister also submitted that sequel to the autonomy that the local governments in the country now enjoy, elections must be held regularly.

‘The other half is to find a way to ensure routine elections at the LGA level, so that LG funds are administered by elected officials- Chairman and Ward Councilors, instead of those handpicked by governors. 

The governor’s party sweeps all the LG elections except in a few symbolic instances, leaving little room for inter-party competition for developmental projects that ultimately benefit the people. Competition makes everyone sit up for fear of underperforming and losing the next election’ he noted.

Tuggar  also submitted that there is often an over-simplification that the Sahel is primarily inhabited by nomadic groups like the Tuaregs, Bororo, and Zaghawa, many of who are incorrectly assumed to lean towards terrorism and criminal activities.

‘There is often an over-simplification that goes thus: the Sahel is sparsely populated by nomadic groups (Tuaregs, Bororo, Zaghawa, etc.) and many of them tend towards terrorism and criminal activities. A certain degree of laziness in information collection processes and the wholesale adoption of western taxonomy and labelling has often led to wrong decision-making’ he submitted.

The minister urged the NIA to take the lead in adequate information collection processes to tackle insecurity in the Sahel region 

‘Nigeria must therefore, as the hegemon in the region lead the way in providing more accurate and factual analyses and interpretation of events in the Sahel. It is incumbent on the NIA to pave the way through its information collection process.

This would begin with more accurate taxonomy and labelling of groups. Not every act of crime- kidnapping for ransom, attack on a community, smuggling of weapons must necessarily be ascribed to a stand-alone jihadi or tribal group. Quite often, such acts are driven by economic interests and not ideological or tribal association’ he added–Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you