Former
President Olusegun Obasanjo has said it has become imperative to review
the laws establishing the local government with the aim of checking the
excesses of state governments regarding the running of the councils.
Obasanjo
argued that reviewing the council laws would put an end to the current
situation whereby the state governments are usually accused of
“ambushing” funds allocated to the councils.
The
former president said this when the National Executive members of the
Association of Local Governments of Nigeria led by its National
President, Nwabueze Okafor, visited him in Abeokuta on Friday.
He
added that state governments lacked the legal backing to carry out such
unconstitutional process of deducting funds from the councils’
allocation.
He
said, “It is the states that will be sitting on the local government
money without recourse to their legislature and appropriation process.
Therefore, they have to get their money too.
“Since
the National Assembly is talking about constitution amendments, may be
it is also important to talk about amending the local government laws so
that there is no means or way the states will ambush the local
government money and there will be also how we can call the local
government to order; how they can be called to account, to be held
responsible.”
Obasanjo,
whose military regime promulgated the Local Government Administration
Laws in 1976, also expressed regret that the essence of creating the
third tier of government had been defeated with recent events.
He
added, “When we brought the reform nationally, we then said it is the
third tier of government in Nigeria. What we are saying in other word is
that the local government is the closest government to the people.
“Unfortunately,
the adjustments followed, people started asking for local government in
their backyards. The military succumbed and what we have is that they
could not be able to deliver.”
The
ALGON president stated that Obasanjo remained the father of local
government administration in the country having spearheaded the 1976
local government reforms.
Okafor
said, “This was again manifested in the creation of ALGON in 1999 when
you were democratically elected as a civilian President.”
Meanwhile,
Forum of State Chairmen of the Conference of Nigerian Political
Parties, South-South Zone, has called on the National Assembly to make
proper legislation that would grant the autonomy to local government
administration in the country.
In
a communiqué issued in Port Harcourt shortly after a meeting of the
CNPP chairmen on Saturday, the forum explained that such legislation
would encourage development at the local government level.
The
communiqué signed by signed by the Rivers State CNPP Chairman, Dr.
Manaidi Dagogo-Jack, his counterpart from Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Linus
Udofia, and four others took exception to the state/local government
joint allocation account supervised by state governments.
