BY TINA AKANNAM

Jigawa State is an exception in the country in the sustenance of democratic structures at the local government level with the conduct of regular elections since the advent of the Sule Lamido administration.

Jigawa under the leadership of Governor Sule Lamido is one of the few states in the federation that have been able to adhere to Section 7 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

When Lamido came into office in 2007, he was faced with many complexities in local government administration, which was why in August 2007, he appointed 27 caretaker committees comprising seven persons for each local government and three permanent commissioners for the state Independent electoral commission (SIEC) who were tasked to prepare and plan for the proper conduct of local government election in the state as soon as possible.

About seven months later, the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) organized and conducted local elections, in which the ruling PDP won all the 27 local government councils in the state, leaving the All Nigerian People Party, ANPP which was before then in control of the state for the preceding eight years with nothing!

Gov Lamido

Since then, the mantra of Governor Lamido has been to conduct local government election whenever due, making him an exception among his fellow governors in the respect of the democratic tenets at the local government level.

His inclination has, however, not been universally popular given the fondness of PDP members for the appointment of caretaker committees as a way of bestowing political patronage.

One controversy that has bestirred the polity in the state was the decision of the State House of Assembly to extend the term limit for chairmen and councilors from a maximum of two terms to a maximum of three.

The speaker of Jigawa State House of Assembly, Rt. Honourable Adamu Ahmad Sarawa in defence for the House decision said the House amended the state 2008 local government law in the interest of the state.

The amended state 2008 local government law which paved way for the outgoing chairmen to re-contest for the third time according to the speaker is applicable for all political parties in the state because it has become the law of Jigawa state government.

However, many opposition parties in the state did not like the idea because they saw it as a strategy for the ruling PDP in the state to dominate the elective positions in the local government councils.

Obviously discouraged by the decision of the state House of Assembly, the leadership of the two major opposition parties in the state boycotted the 2012 local government election alleging that the Jigawa State Independent Electoral Commission (JISIEC) will not be fair to them.

However, Accord, even though not a known political party in the state won councillorship position in Kiyawa local government and an ANPP member also won councillorship seat in Taura local government and they were both declared winners by JISIEC.

Alhaji Abba Mohammed Daguro, Chairman Kirikasamma Local Government Council who is currently the state secretary of ALGON, said he has been serving as chairman since 2004.

According to him, it only in the present administration under Governor Sule Lamido that he was able to execute many projects for the people of his council because at the end of each month, all the 27 local government chairmen get their monthly statutory allocations from the federal government after all deduction which he said is enough to execute project’s without borrowing money.

‘I can confidently tell you that here in Jigawa State local governments have been enjoying full autonomy for six years now, we collect our allocations directly from the source without any interference from the state government’.