Athan Achonu, former lawmaker and governorship candidate, says state governors are undermining local government autonomy by controlling council elections.
Achonu spoke on Thursday during an interview on Arise Television.
According to him, genuine democracy cannot thrive as long as governors continue to oversee local government elections through state electoral commissions.
“As long as the governors conduct local government elections, there is no true democracy in Nigeria,” he said.
The former lawmaker argued that local government elections have become predictable because candidates of ruling parties in states almost always emerge victorious.
“Is there any state in this country where all the local government chairmen don’t come from the same political party as the governor?” he asked.
Furthermore, Achonu criticised the establishment of state independent electoral commissions (SIECs), saying they weakened democratic competition at the grassroots.
“When they created SIEC, I also raised hell,” he said.
“I said, no, let INEC conduct the elections.”
According to him, before state electoral commissions became dominant, different political parties won local government elections across states.
“You could see chairmen of local governments from different political parties in every state,” he said.
“So you could feel true democracy.”
Achonu said the situation changed after governors assumed control of local government polls.
He alleged that governors now determine who emerges as local government chairmen, members of the national assembly and, in some cases, senators.
“All that stopped immediately after governors took over the conduct of local government elections,” he said.
“Now, since they started appointing the chairman, they were appointing federal house members and senators.”
In addition, Achonu claimed that governors wield excessive influence over state and national politics because they control political structures from the grassroots.
He argued that this weakens electoral competition and limits voters’ ability to choose their leaders freely.
However, the former lawmaker said governors often forget that political power is temporary.
“They forget that their tenure is an eight-year tenure,” he said.
“When they leave, the next governor can deal with them ruthlessly the same way they did with the other one.”
