Daniel Riwo|11 January 2018
It has been over one (1) year since the expiration of the three years tenure of local government executives in the state, and as the constitution demands, elections are to be conducted to elect new executives to take over the affairs of the local government areas but since the expiration of the last tenure in (2016), the incumbent state leadership which is in charge of running the affairs of the state has continually showed abysmal interest in conducting elections thereby tricking Cross Riverians into being lead by head of local government areas which are directly under the influence of the state government which is clearly illegal as this interim administration of local government areas have limited time as enshrined in the Constitution.
As it has been the custom of the Ayade led administration to neglect the laws of the land (Nigeria's constitution) which has played out severally since 2015, from the mismanagement of funds to abuse of power, it constituted the CROSIEC executive led by Obudu-born Dr Ushie who has performed poorly by using his capacity as the chairman to stall elections and do the biddings of his principal (Gov Ayade) who has shown little or no interest in conducting elections due to his visible fear of losing grip of the LGAs following his abysmal performance.
Within the last one year we have heard of proposed dates for the conduction of the LGA elections with the latest being December 2017, as it has been the usual fashion of the Dr Ushie led CROSIEC administration, it came up with another story about the Cross River State House of Assembly not approving its budget after initially claiming that it's (CROSIEC) offices all over the state are in bad conditions and need rehabilitation.
For a state like ours that cannot boast of a good IGR and has a low federal allocation to come out and host events such as NORTH FEST which required more than 50 million to organize, several carnivals (cultural carnival, bikers/riders carnival, international carnival etc) which cost N6 billion and brings little profit to the state, it clearly shows that the incumbent administration is not interested in conducting elections to constitute a legitimate LGA executive.
No state can work effectively without a direct connection with those at the grass root as the Constitution is clear enough and in the wisdom of our fore fathers who drafted the constitution and created a third tier of government (local government), they had it in mind that this tier will be independent and so therefore will be effective.
There is no excuse to back up the lazy behavior of CROSEIC and the lack of interest displayed by the Cross River State government in conducting elections. If the state can propose a budget of over N1 trillion for 2018, I see no reasons being December 2017, as it has been the usual fashion of the Dr Ushie led C does not see any issue or have any trouble in paying his over 5, 000 appointees.
It is a constitutional breach for a state government not to conduct local government elections as captured in section 7(2) of the constitution which states that for a local government legislation to be legitimate elections must be conducted, CROSIEC requires just a little over 6billion to conduct local government elections and the state government cannot claim not to be equal to this task, I therefore charge the chairman of CROSIEC Dr Michael Ushie to clear the doubts in the minds of Cross Riverians on the independency of his agency and bring out election time table and conduct local government elections.
We are tired of hearing series of proposed dates and promises by both aides of the governor and the chairman of CROSEIC, we need an elected LGA executive that we can hold accountable for the administration of our LGA's.
I am Daniel Riwo
Social change agent
Co-founder voice of Yala
