The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, has expressed concerns about the composition of state Houses of Assembly across the federation.

According to him, the state Houses of Assembly are filled with passive loyalists who neglect their duty of providing checks and balances on the executive arm of government.

Tuggar’s comment comes as many in the country are celebrating the Supreme Court’s judgment granting autonomy to local governments.

Delivering a paper titled “Pathways to Peace, Security and Stability in the Sahel: What Role for Nigeria?” at the Nigeria Intelligence Agency Headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday, Tuggar stated that a system had been put in place to promote loyal local government chairmen to the state House of Assembly, ensuring they wouldn’t challenge the governor’s actions.

He said, “Many states don’t even bother with elections. The governors simply appoint loyalists as LG sole administrators. A system has been perfected through which a loyal LGA Chairman is promoted to the state House of Assembly, where he would not dare challenge the perspective of the governor.

“In reality, state Houses of Assemblies are packed with passive loyalists that fail in their duty of providing checks and balances on the executive arm. They also fail in looking out for the interest of their local government areas.”

Tuggar noted that after the autonomy granted to the LGs, routine elections must be conducted.

He added that this would prevent anyone selected by the governors from controlling the LG funds.

Tuggar said, “The other half is to find a way to establish routine elections at the LGA level, so that LG funds are administered by elected officials- Chairman and Ward Councillors, instead of those handpicked by governors.

“The governor’s party sweeps all the LG elections except in a few symbolic instances, leaving little room for inter-party competition for developmental projects that ultimately benefit the people. Competition makes everyone sit up for fear of underperforming and losing the next election.”

Addressing the lecture’s topic, Tuggar noted that there is often an over-simplification that the Sahel is primarily inhabited by nomadic groups like the Tuaregs, Bororo, and Zaghawa, many of whom are incorrectly assumed to lean towards terrorism and criminal activities.

He said, “There is often an over-simplification that goes thus: the Sahel is sparsely populated by nomadic groups (Tuaregs, Bororo, Zaghawa, etc.) and many of them tend towards terrorism and criminal activities. A certain degree of laziness in information collection processes and the wholesale adoption of western taxonomy and labelling has often led to wrong decision-making.”

He called on NIA to take the lead in adequate information collection processes to solve the challenges of insecurity in the Sahel region

Tuggar said, “Nigeria must therefore, as the hegemon in the region lead the way in providing more accurate and factual analyses and interpretation of events in the Sahel. It is incumbent on the NIA to pave the way through its information collection process.

“This would begin with more accurate taxonomy and labelling of groups. Not every act of crime- kidnapping for ransom, attack on a community, smuggling of weapons must necessarily be ascribed to a stand-alone jihadi or tribal group. Quite often, such acts are driven by economic interests and not ideological or tribal association.