Speaker of the House of Representatives,\u00a0 Hon Yakubu Dogara, has called on
\nNigerians to lend their voices to the push for financial and
\nadministrative autonomy for local governments in the country , noting that
\nif state Houses of Assembly are not pressurised, they may not vote in
\nfavour of the proposal.<\/p>\n
The Speaker said this when he received a delegation from the Nigeria Good
\nGovernance Group, led by former military governor of Bauchi State, Gen
\nChris Abutu Garba (rtd), in his office.<\/p>\n
He maintained that there are beneficiaries of the present arrangement who
\nwill do everything possible to ensure that the proposed Constitution
\nAmendment to wrest control of the resources of local governments from
\nstate governors does not scale through.<\/p>\n
While calling on “civil society organisations, non-governmental
\norganisations, community based organisations, to stand up and be counted,”
\nDogara, also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to give support to the
\nclamour for local government autonomy, as promised in his inaugural
\naddress on May 29, 2015.<\/p>\n
The Speaker recalled that the President had pledged that actualising
\nfinancial autonomy for local governments\u00a0 will be in line with his
\nresolved\u00a0 not to allow people under him to betray the trust Nigerians have
\nplaced on them as leaders.<\/p>\n
“This is a betrayal of trust given to some elected officials by the people
\nwho now abuse this trust,” he said, referring to some governors who divert
\nfunds meant for the development of local government areas.<\/p>\n
“It will take more than the will of the legislature at the federal level
\nto ensure that these radical changes are achieved. We all know that in
\nthe last assembly, when we passed it to the states, most of the states
\nvoted it down that they don’t want the autonomy for local government
\ncouncils. And in the process of amending the Constitution, the state
\nlegislators must be engaged, and we will have to have a return of 2\/3rd
\napproval from the state assemblies. So if we put forward these proposals
\nand we fail to gather 2\/3rd support it means that automatically it has
\nfailed and there is nothing that we can do about it.<\/p>\n
“That is why we will start by lobbying you, even if I call it lobby, to
\nmake sure that we stand up as a people. Whenever things are not working,
\nwe should be able to close ranks, come together and say we are opposed to
\nthis system that is not delivering the goods, we want it completely
\nexcised from the body polity so that we can make progress. But if we keep
\nquiet, nothing will happen.”<\/p>\n
“If the state assemblies are not\u00a0 pressured by stakeholders, I can assure
\nyou that we will not get that 2\/3rd support. I am not a prophet, but we
\nwill not get it, except we have people like you who are ready to stand up
\nand be counted by bringing pressure to the state governors and bringing
\npressure to the state assemblies and making sure that what this
\nrevolutionary amendment seeks to achieve in our Constitution is achieved.”<\/p>\n
Earlier, leader of the delegation, Gen Chris Abutu Garba, tabled some
\nrequests of the Nigeria Good Governance Group to Speaker Dogara, including
\na fixed 4 year tenure for local government council chairmen, death
\npenalty, confiscation of stolen property and blacklisting of family
\nmembers of convicted corrupt government officials, fiscal federalism and
\nallowances for graduates of higher Institutions who are unemployed, among
\nothers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speaker of the House of Representatives,\u00a0 Hon Yakubu Dogara, has called on Nigerians to lend their voices to the push for financial and administrative autonomy for local governments in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n