By: Valentine Adese,
The quest for
Local Government Autonomy in Nigeria has taken a new shape, as the National Union
of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and
other Non-governmental Organizations operating in five (5) states in the
South-west zone of Nigeria, have declared to mobilize electorates not to vote
in any forthcoming elections, if the Houses of Assemblies in that zone did not
vote in support of Local Government Autonomy.
This
declaration of “No-Atonomy-No-Vote” was made after a Media and Civil Society Technical Session on
Constitutional Amendment Review, organized by Partnership to Engage, Reform and
Learn (PERL), at Heritage Continental Hotel, Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria.
The National President of NULGE,
Comrade Ibrahim Kaleel, who led the press briefing team after the technical
session and flanked by other leaders of NGOs, and CSOs said, “We call on the five (5) Houses of Assemblies in the South-west zone comprising of, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Ondo, and Ekiti, to pass the Local
government Autonomy without delay!
“We are aware that some of the Houses
have stepped it down for the purpose of conducting public hearing but, they
must vote in favour of it.”
According to Comrade Ibrahim, no
country runs a federal system like it is been ran in Nigeria.
He said, “It is sad that the quest
for local government autonomy has been a recurrent decimal in this country that
the people have to continue demanding for same since 1960s.
“We only had vibrant local
government authorities in the country in 1999, when the Independent National
Electoral Commission conducted elections to fill vacant political offices at
that level.
“You would also recall that in 2012
when the then President Olusegun Obasanjo came with the move to reassess the
three levels of governance in the country, with the team led by Prof. Jerry Gana,
it was reported that the performances of the local governments then was far
better that the 36 states put together.
“But today, because of lack of
autonomy, LGs like Kanduga has fallen not only to poverty but to Boko Haram. If
you know Kanduga before in Borno state, it was known as a local government of
peace and people always want to spend their retirement years there.
“From facts, all these have happened
because crucial unnecessary interventions of State Governors and their
non-inclusive tendencies.
“There is no way we can live in
peace in our democracy with this style and level of exclusion in the country. This
exclusion of local governments and its people in our democracy will always witness
chaos and crises.
“One critical activity of Local
Government Council Chairmen was to preside over Security Councils of the LGAs
and to take stock of any security challenges, with the aim of providing
solutions or make a comprehensive report to higher authorities. This has been
taken away from them by the Nigerian state Governors.
“The present security challenges of
Farmers and Herdsmen, were in the past handled by LG authorities in does days
but, owing to the fact that the local government level of governance destroyed this
role is no longer visible.”
“Democracy is government of the
people. So what is democracy without the people in the local government? The activists
ask.
“Why would the third tier not be
included in our democracy,? We must take queue, as unbiased umpires, to see
that the local government autonomy bill is adopted and will use all legal means
to drive home our point” the groups collectively added.
Earlier, while welcoming the
participants to the programmes, Mr. Edwin Onoja an officer with PERL, said the
technical session was to engage the media and stakeholders on the issues in
order to proffer solutions that would make government perform better in service
delivery.
He said, “The programme in Akure is
a solution oriented driven programme, aimed at providing how knowledge from the
session can be implemented in the six states of the south west zone to enable
the houses of assemblies in the zone, favourably pass the needed local
government autonomy bills.
“The technical session is to help
re-strategize and reinvigorate the performance of participants and networks.” He
stated.
On his part, Mr. John Mutu, also an
officer with PERL and a member of a group under the aegis of “Friends of
Democracy” in his remarks, educated the participants that the National Assembly
had 33 bills but, 21 was passed, while 12 were voted against.
He said the NASS transmitted only 15
bills to the various state houses of assembly and that unlike the 7th
assembly, the bills have continued to be transmitted in piece mill.
While reviewing the amendment processes
so far, Mr. John Mutu said, “out of the 36 state of the federation, 12 have
voted on the local government autonomy bills. 9 voted in favour, while 3 voted
against. States that have voted in favour are: Benue, Plateau, Niger, Kwara,
Bauchi, Sokoto, Ogun, Bayelsa and Cross Rivers states.
“While those which voted against
are: Imo, Rivers and Edo states.”
No comments:
Post a Comment