Prince Hillard Eta is the South-South National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In this interview with reporters in Calabar, Eta expresses strong reservations for the local government system in Nigeria, among other issues. Nicholas Kalu was there. Excerpts
You have expressed strong reservations about the local government system in Nigeria. Why is this so?
It has been a very painful journey with regards to local governance in Nigeria since 1999. I am aware because I have been active since 1998, since the advent of this dispensation and I am aware that from 1999 to 2002, we had a similitude of local governance in Nigeria. Across party lines, this emerging local government system was completely caused between 2002 and 2003 and since then we have had graduated deterioration of the local government administration in Nigeria. In fact, what we have today in certain states, like Cross River, is a joke in the name of local government administration. Take for instance in the month of March, my local government area, Calabar Municipal Council, was out of the almost N200 million allocation, given only N2million for the purposes of superintending over the council. With a voting population of about 144, 000 and a total population of more than 400,000 people, it is a joke. A million naira was given to the executive; a million naira was given to the legislature of the local government. One is therefore forced to ask if it is necessary at all that we have the local government structure. Would it not have been better if the federation was to terminate at the state level, so that we know that the funds that come to Cross River State goes straight to the state and however the state wants to manage its resources, it would be held accountable by the people. Not a situation where about 20 per cent of the entire resources of Nigeria is ploughed into a system that is so vague that you cannot hold anybody accountable.
For instance what happens to the rest of the allocation of Calabar Municipality for the month of March?
So, this is unprecedented fraud and scam. I think the nation ought to look at the local government system, whether it is necessary at all. In certain other places, it becomes an outpost for the collection of levies and taxes for government, not for any meaningful development processes to take place at that level of government. I am not sure there are local government areas in Nigeria of today that would asphalt roads, do extension services in their agricultural sector and aid in the public health systems like it used to be. And the local government was created to bring government to the rural dwellers, to the least privileged amongst us. It has not served that purpose. So, the pertinent question to ask is if it is therefore necessary at all. In almost all the states in Nigeria, you find out that it is one party that would appropriate ownership of the structures of the entire local government areas.
So, what they do in states like in Cross River, they call it family affair, where they sit down and nobody from outside of the system gets to know what happens within the system. And that is why most Nigerians question the efficacy of the state electoral commissions; whether it is necessary at all. This is because results emanating from local government elections can be forecasted. That is a state is controlled by a particular party, that all the local governments would be controlled by the same party.
To drive home my point, 20 per cent of the federation account that goes to the local government areas in Nigeria is far and above the national budget of so many African countries today. Take a place like Botswana, Seychelles or Rwanda, where it is said that real development is taking place in those places. The resources available to them are not even as much as monies allocated to the local government areas in Nigeria and yet real development is taking place in those places. So, this is our concern with regards to the local government system in Nigeria.
Let Nigerians sit again to decide if local government system is not necessary or if it should be abolished. If it is necessary, then we should format a template to begin to have the local government work for the people of Nigeria. Right now, it is not working for the people. I am not proffering an absolute solution to this problem. I am just saying that it is something we must put on the table whether we like it or not; because we are just frittering away 20 percent of the resources of Nigeria, and it is huge.
Are you hopeful the APC will retain Edo State in the coming governorship elections, as there appears to be some crisis within the party there?
The APC is grounded in Edo. It is poised to win and retain the governorship of Edo. Not because we are a garrison party, not because we intend to capture Edo, but simply because we are campaigning on the accomplishments of our outgoing governor. So there is absolutely no problem. Yet people impugn all manner of conspiracy theories. The APC has not lost hold of Edo. Its hand is firmly on the handle. The result of the election would speak to this. Only the voters of Edo would decide.
How about internal democracy in arriving at a candidate for the party?
We have shown that in Kogi. We had 28 aspirants and because it was fair, not a single person petitioned the party. And that is exactly what we would do in Edo. You know we read sometimes about so much crisis in the APC and I laugh. I think with all due respect to the press, for us not to have crisis in the party, we must all behave like zombies. But I don’t believe that I ought to behave like a zombie. You know when the president came here and broke the ground for the construction of the superhighway, I disagreed with my president. And I said, I do not believe in this project. This project is a scam. I said so from the beginning and today Nigerians are beginning to see that it was a scam. It was just a process of logging our woods and destroying the last rainforest in Africa for private profit, because I cannot imagine where Cross River State would find N700 billion to build a road like that. I have always asked a pertinent question. Please what is wrong with the other road? Why can we not rehabilitate it or build a new road on it? Why must we build another road, which connects about only five local governments? The existing one connects about 13, which means that it is the most important road in Cross River State. So, if you truly want to build a superhighway, this is the superhighway. Not when you have to pass through our forests and log our wood. Some of those trees have been there for more than 400 years. The man is going there to destroy our ecosystem, log our wood and tell us he is building a superhighway. So in the APC, we have a right to hold different opinions. That is why we are progressives. In the conservative fold, the only thing that puts them together is how to share the spoils of office. For us, we must debate and have a conversation. And as many people as you have on the table, you will have many opinions. We must have this conversation for us to have a consensus.
