Babatunde Fashola, minister of works and housing, has
advised Nigerians to pay more attention to the outcome of governorship and
local government elections than presidential polls.
The minister was speaking at The Platform, an annual
conference organised by Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos, on Thursday.
The virtual event hosted by Poju Oyemade, its convener, was
to commemorate the nation’s 60th independence anniversary.
Topping Twitter trends in Nigeria as of 11:00 am was the
hashtag #Nigeria60AndUseless as Nigerians expressed disappointment over the
country’s state, 60 years after independence.
Several users faulted the government at the centre over poor
leadership.
However, Fashola said Nigerians are disappointed in the
federal government and should rather pay more attention to the government at
the local and state levels rather than the federal level.
The minister explained that the governments at both levels
are directly responsible for providing basic education, primary healthcare,
water supply, among other necessities of Nigerians.
“Government is not magic and we continue to project hope.
But some Nigerians must realize that what we expect of the Nigerian federal
government perhaps lies more with the state governors and the local
government,” he said.
“Some of the most basic things are with them. So looking for
it from the federal government perhaps is why we seem to have been disappointed
because we are looking for the result in the wrong place. Waste management,
water supply, primary healthcare, basic education, those are all things with
the local and state government.”
“Federal government does not own a primary healthcare
centre. In Nigeria, the federal government has roughly about 107 secondary
schools. I will urge people to go and read the constitution. The powers the
president has are about 25, many of them are circumscribed by the national
assembly and judiciary.
“The government that can transform us and give us the things
we want most quickly are the governments closest to us – state and local
government. Security is a shared responsibility. Going forward in choosing leaders,
we must make sure that we pay even greater attention to who is governor, who is
a local government chairman than we pay to who is president.”
The Minister hit the nail on the head. Most Nigerians even the so-called educated ones are being mischevious when they heap all the blames about basic things like Primary and Secondary education, primary healthcare and other such things on the Federal government.Most of the blames for inaction on these and other areas are done to miseducate the people and also to gain political traction among the less informed. The people should focus more on the governments that are closest to them.E.g. Ward councilors, local government chairmen, state governors and also their various parliamentary representatives.
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