The issue of local government autonomy remains the essential ingredient in the realization of good governance in the nation’s history and political experience but it is also the most dreaded matter on the corridors of power particularly among politicians.
As old as the cravings for a redefined status of the local government system by Nigerians could have been, only sixteen states of the federation have so far voted for local government autonomy to provide grassroots democracy and good governance. Though there has been rising optimism for the realisation of local government autonomy in the ongoing constitution amendment with the votes of only eight states required to make it a reality, the general unfavourable disposition of some governors over this subject matter has remained a matter of serious concern to a nation like Nigeria struggling to develop and strengthen its democratic structures.
Information available to Global times revealed that out of the 20 state Assemblies that have voted on the bill, 16 have voted in favour of LG autonomy, suggesting that out of the remaining sixteen states that are yet to vote on local government autonomy, eight states’ vote will help to meet the threshold of 24 for the bill to scale the hurdle in the states’ Houses of Assembly.
According to available facts, out of the 20 states that have voted on the bill so far, three states, Lagos, Ekiti and Benue voted against, while Adamawa abstained.
The sixteen states that have voted for local government autonomy included, Abia, Kogi, Edo, Ogun, Katsina, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Nasarawa, Niger, Kaduna, Cross River, Osun, Enugu, Kano and Bauchi states.
The bad state of local governments in Taraba state and its inclusion in the list of states yet to vote in favor of local governments autonomy calls for critical appraisal and workable strategy to get the local governments out of the present quagmire.
Perhaps this informs the decision of the President of the Taraba State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Moseh Luka to appeal to the Taraba state Assembly for intervention through sound legislation and voting in favour of local government autonomy.
The NULGE president told Globaltimes that the State Assembly now has the rare opportunity to leave their footprints on the sand of history by being part of the states that contributed to the strengthening of Nigeria’s democracy by voting in favour of local government autonomy.
He said that the Legislators as responsive political leaders with grassroots orientation have the moral obligation as representatives of the grassroots population to contribute to the survival of local governments and grassroots democracy.
According to him, posterity will judge the present crop of Legislators if they fail in their responsibility this time to join the league of states who have voted in favour of the autonomy for local governments.
Some civil society organisations (CSOs) had berated lawmakers in the state assemblies for their lack of commitment in passing the Local Government Autonomy bill in the nation’s constitution amendment process.
Despite calls by Nigerians and the international community for local government autonomy where the third tier of government will receive and disburse their allocations without interference from state governors, the bill has not received the needed level of support when it was taken for concurrence at the State Houses of Assembly.
The National Team Leader of PERL- ECP, John E. Mutu said that they are working on State Houses of Assembly to push them hard to attend to the bills sent since March 2022.
PERL- ECP is a governance programme funded by the UK’ s Foreign, Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO).
Mutu has expressed confidence that with the sensitisation going on in the states, the outfit will be able to get another eight state houses of assembly, out of the remaining 16 that are yet to vote on the bill, to vote for LG autonomy in Nigeria.
Three civil society organisations, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) and Transparency International (TI) have also asked the State Houses of Assemblies to do the right thing and pass the local government autonomy bill.
Speaking through their leader, Awwal Musa Rafsanjani, the CSOs said most lawmakers are only interested in politicking rather than working on laws for the good governance of the country.
“Like we have always maintained, most of these lawmakers are not really interested in constitutional amendment. What they have done is just to justify the spending from the votes (funds) for the constitution amendment.
“This process has been going on and we have not got any favourable outcome. As far as we are concerned, the move by the National Assembly to show that they were working on the constitution was to justify the billions and other things spent in the name of constitution amendment,” he said.
Rafsanjani added that the lawmakers know exactly what they are doing, and now that many of the members in the State Houses of Assembly are not coming back, just like lawmakers of the National Assembly, Nigerians should not be surprised if the LG autonomy bill is not passed.
PIONEER NEWS 