Senate Urges President Tinubu To Resuscitate Local Government Autonomy 

The Nigerian Senate has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to champion the cause of full autonomy for the local governments in the country.

In a debate on the bill “Calling on President Bola Tinubu to resuscitate LG administration in Nigeria”, the Senate also urged the President to unify the electoral system and tenure of offices of the chairmen and councillors of local governments in Nigeria.

The sponsor of the bill, Senator Suleiman Kawu, representing Kano South cited the motion to the fact that state governors are spending local government funds without corresponding support to the autonomy of the third tier government.

He said with the nature of Nigeria’s democracy, the country can achieve and overcome its challenges if full federation system of government is adopted.

Senator Kawu maintained that the bill was necessary at this time given that President Tinubu who governed Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, understood the importance and potency of local government administration at the grassroots.

He said: “President Bola Tinubu, when he served as governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, and the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, when he served as the governor of Akwa Ibom State from 2007 to 2015, implemented various initiatives to improve service delivery at the local level.”

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The Senate however expressed concern at successive state governments efforts in eroding local autonomy by limiting their financial resources and control over decision-making.

The Upper Chamber therefore urged President Tinubu to “champion the cause of full autonomy for local governments in the country.”

National dialogue

The Nigerian Legislature also urged the President to “Convene a national dialogue involving governors, state legislators, local government officials, civil society organizations, and community leaders to discuss the roadmap towards achieving full local government autonomy.

“To use his leadership and influence to persuade the federating units and all critical stakeholders in the constitutional alteration processes and administrative bottlenecks to embrace the vision of full local government autonomy.

“To also champion changes to the Constitution that enshrine and guarantee genuine independence for local governments, granting them control over their resources, decision- making authority, and the power to chart their development paths.

Further more they called on the President to “urge Federal agencies to fully comply with existing legal provisions that empower local governments, ensuring timely release of allocated funds directly to their bank accounts and streamlining administrative processes.”

They also urged him to “unify the electoral system and tenure of offices of the chairmen and councilors of the local governments in Nigeria and to stop further allocation of funds to Caretaker Committee-led Local Government Area which in the opinion of the Senate can assist in achieving the objectives of the motion.”

Normalcy in local council autonomy

In his remarks, after contributions by some senators, the Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau who presided over the plenary decried the stiff opposition to the local government autonomy, saying that some governors never wanted the local governments to survive for their selfish reasons.

“During the military and early part of the 4th Republic, the local government areas were having their autonomy and there was full sense of security prevailing there. The economies of all these local governments was booming. Rural urban migration was very small. Even councilors were awarding contracts; the money was there and they were doing very well. Even some local governments were doing very well because they had their internally generated revenue.”

The Deputy Senate President also called for normalcy as it were before and as it should be in the local governments.

Emmanuel Ukoh