Get Guardian on GoogleGovernorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, in Cross River State, Amb. Nkoyo Toyo, has said total decentralisation of power and local government autonomy is the key to empowering Cross River’s 29 language groups and rebuilding the state from below.
Toyo spoke in Calabar shortly after the inauguration of her Campaign Council, where she unveiled a citizen-centred governance philosophy aimed at moving Nigerians from merely surviving to thriving.
“We are suffering and surviving. This is existential. We must go out of this existential mode into a more thriving environment,” she said.
She lamented the automisation of Cross River into small, disempowered ethnic groups, which she said has rendered the state politically insignificant and not a swing state at national level.
Toyo argued that local governments must have financial and administrative autonomy, with access to their statutory allocations and authority to determine their own development priorities, rather than depend on decisions taken by the state government.
She said decentralisation would enable communities to build stronger local economies, understand their economic potential, organise their resources and negotiate better terms for development.
It is also critical, she said, to controlling mineral resources and preventing land dislocation by external interests with licences from Abuja.
Toyo warned that communities could lose control of their economic interests when mining licences are issued by the Federal Government without adequate consultation with people living in affected areas, citing disputes in parts of Akamkpa Local Government Area.
She said if investors with mining licences enter communities, extract valuable minerals and leave residents with little benefit, the state would have failed its people.
Empowering local governments, she said, would help prevent smaller communities from being marginalised and give them a stronger stake in the state’s economic future.
“Decentralisation is particularly important to Cross River because of its diverse ethnic composition,” she said. “Rebuilding from below is how we protect our land, our resources and our voice.”
Toyo listed agriculture, economy, energy, environment, mineral resources, health, human capital development, infrastructure, transport, security and reforms as her priority areas, in line with the ADC national blueprint.
She said the ADC is built on rule of law, accountability, security, productivity, protection and empowerment of citizens.
She also slammed the All Progressives Congress, APC, saying the party has nothing new to offer after 12 years in power, and has resorted to campaigning on personalities instead of its record.
“What did they do? They didn’t tell us how he was going to make society more accountable. They started telling us how Obi agreed for four years, telling us how Atiku married four wives. That became their campaign message, not on strength of what they have done as APC in 12 years,” she said.
She decried politics of “anything-goes,” where religion, faith and matters of spirit have become fair game, and lamented rising insecurity, impunity and lack of accountability, citing insecurity in the Governor’s neighbourhood and a transformer down for three weeks without response as evidence of a government that does not care.
