…Says Local Government Autonomy only Empowers “SUV-Riding” Chairmen
…Elder Statesman Calls for Peaceful Dissolution, Citing Soviet and Indian Precedents
By Peter Taiwo
Former Senator and Afenifere chieftain, Dr. Femi Okurounmu, has declared Nigeria “ungovernable” under its current political structure, labeling the push for state policing a helpful but ultimately partial solution to the nation’s existential crises.
Speaking Wednesday on Frontline, a current affairs program on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese Ijebu, the elder statesman argued that decades of superficial reforms have failed to address the structural imbalances fueling insecurity and systemic collapse.
The “Myth” of Restructuring
Okurounmu was scathing in his assessment of recent gains in local government autonomy, arguing they have failed to trickle down to the masses.
”Local government autonomy now simply allows chairmen to ride SUVs,”
Okurounmu remarked. “In my state, every chairman has one. While people decried the cost of Senatorial vehicles, these local officials ride SUVs and do nothing.
Is this the restructuring we wanted? They can now hire ten private assistants because they are ‘autonomous,’ but it doesn’t put food in the stomachs of the poor.”
Security and “Ethnic Hegemony”
While acknowledging that state policing is a long-overdue necessity, the former Commissioner for Works warned it cannot provide “eternal peace” so long as one ethnic group seeks dominance over others.
He specifically pointed to what he described as the disproportionate influence of Fulani elites.
“When a section of a country declares the whole nation is destined to be theirs… and brings in ethnic fellows from outside Nigeria to take over, do you think we should just close our eyes?” he asked.
He further noted that Nigeria’s inability to secure itself has forced embarrassing reliance on foreign powers.
“It got to the point where America had to kill terrorists in Sokoto. People cried about sovereignty, but we cannot use our sovereignty to defend our own citizens.”
A Case for Peaceful Dissolution
Drawing on historical parallels, Okurounmu challenged the “sacrosanct” nature of Nigerian unity, tracing the country’s friction back to the 1914 British Amalgamation.
”The British gave us one country for their convenience. Must we take that as God-given?” he queried.
“The Soviet Union broke up. Czechoslovakia broke up. India broke up into India and Pakistan, and both profited.
If breaking up would be profitable to all of us, why can’t we do it peacefully and remain good neighbors?”
Institutional Decay
The Senator concluded that Nigeria’s democracy is currently a “form without substance,” citing the compromise of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the judiciary, and the legislature.
”Every election is rigged so the man in power gets who he wants. When all Nigerians are purchasable through vote-buying, we become a nation of slaves,” he lamented.
He maintained that while 24-hour electricity and infrastructure would make citizens care less about a president’s ethnicity, such development is impossible under a system that is fundamentally “incompatible” with its component parts.
