From Priscilla Ediare, Ado Ekiti
The Social Development Integrated Centre/ SocialAction, an NGO, has declared that governors objecting to Local Government Autonomy are enemies of Nigerians, advising voters to use the 2023 general elections to vote against such governors and their parties.
The NGO noted that failure to grant autonomy to the third tier of government would deny the people at the grassroots the development they need to better their lives.
This was made known in a statement issued at the end of a one-day capacity-building workshop in Ado-Ekiti, organised by SocialAction with support from the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), and signed by the NGO’s Senior Programmes Officer, Prince Edegbuo .
Edegbuo, who berated the governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi, for being one of the governors who disagreed with giving autonomy to local government, expressed concern at how the House of Assembly in the state had turned down the bill, which was passed by the National Assembly, for the purpose.
“The governors are the true enemies of the people, and I urge all Nigerians resident in any state where the Assembly has not passed the LGA Autonomy Bill to vote against such ruling parties in their states,” he said.
“The incoming governor of Ekiti, Biodun Oyebanji, must upon assumption of duty transmit the LGA Autonomy bill back to the House of Assembly for speedy passage”.
Edegbuo also urged political heads of council areas to promote accountability and transparency by being inclusive in the budget process, in line with international best practices.
Similarly, the President, Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Ekiti State chapter, Babatunde Olatunde, posited that the governors domineering control over the Houses of Assembly, which could have passed the bill, and stringent opposition to the move, was responsible for the dragging of the struggle to attain autonomy for the third tier of government.
Expressing regrets, the NULGE boss noted that Nigeria would remain underdeveloped unless the third tier of government is fully independent and removed totally from the apron string and control of the States.
Olatunde said; “Section 7 of the 1999 constitution allows for democratically elected officials in all the 774 Local Governments across the nation. No governor can remove this, it is there. This shows that the Constitution confers independence on that tier of government.
“We must all rise up from all sectors, including academics, private and public sectors and actualise this autonomy fight. Let me say this, not until we allow autonomy at the LG level, the budget formulation, implementation and evaluation wouldn’t be impactful.
“But the major problem of this struggle is the governors. They are powerful and they are against this in totality. Out of the 12 states that considered the Local Government Autonomy Bill, 10 consented to the idea, with Lagos and Ekiti turning it down.
“The Houses of Assembly are being controlled by the governors and can’t do anything in this regard. Even no traditional ruler can face the governors and tell them we need local government autonomy. That is the level we are and it is very unfortunate.”