Aminu Bello Masari’s ascendency to the position of Katsina state governor is today over a five-year journey. Masari was first sworn in as governor on May 29, 2015.
He won a second term in the 2019 election. However, since the governor assumed the helm of the affairs of the state, there had been no conduct of local government elections in the state.
One would begrudgingly say that for all the long period of five years of this government in office there had been no attempt to conduct local government elections in the state.
This piece sprang from both the local government elections conducted a few weeks ago in Bauchi state while Kano state has scheduled its local government election to hold in the next few months.
Hence, what comes to mind is how a state like Bauchi which governor, Bala Muhammad, just sworn into office as recently as last year, could conduct local government election while those who have been in office for about five years today are not even ready to do; what happened to our governor?.
Recall that the Katsina state government since then had only caretaker chairmen, which had been dissolved; the Katsina state government on March 27, 2020, had sworn in caretaker chairmen for 34 local governments of the state.
We know how all or most of the governors are at war with the efforts by the federal government to make local governments autonomous. The autonomy will give local governments the power to receive directly their funds from the federation account but governors rejected this presidential order.
I, therefore, ask why our governors are displeased with the local government autonomy. Is that why they are reluctant to hold local government elections?.
Katsina state has been bedeviled by the activities of armed-bandits for some years now. However, with rising inflation, economic hardships and difficulties here and there, holding local government elections in the state would provide commoners, workers, and contractors and people at the grassroots a means and stimulus of livelihood from their local governments and may ease the suffering at the local government level.
Despite the litany of complaints and calls on the governor to hold local government elections in the state, he has refused to do so. One is tempted to believe that the governor is benefiting from the share of local government funds.
If not, where are all the funds received by the governor as local governments’ share from the federation account? Where are all the monies received for over these five years?.
The answers to the aforementioned questions could be, is either the monies were squandered or siphoned by the few privileged in the state. In the meantime, how Bauchi state held her election is indeed commendable and worthy of emulation, though many criticised the election as “selection not election”. But it is better than none.
And Kano state government’s scheduled local government election on January 16, 2020 should be a fillip to our Katsina state government to do the needful by conducting local government elections in the state.
Once again, conducting local government elections in the state would indeed reduce the economic hardships and restiveness that people are coping with in the state, and we know that Governor Masari is a man with a listening ear. Constitutionally, it’s duty-bound for every governor to conduct local government.
Umar Babangida,
Faculty of Communication,
Bayero University, Kano
