Babatunde Olatunde, the president of the NULGE chapter in Ekiti State, has accused the state governors of blocking the passage of the Local Government Autonomy Bill, which would have given Nigeria's 774 council areas their freedom.
Olatunde asserted that the fight for the third tier of government's autonomy had been unnecessarily dragged out due to the governors' strenuous opposition to the proposal and their ruthless control over the state Houses of Assembly, which might have passed the bill.
In a similar vein, Prof. Christopher Oluwadare, Chairman of the Coalition of Civil Society Organizations in Ekiti State, has called for strong lobbying on behalf of local government autonomy to prevent the nation's resources from being manipulated and controlled by a select group of governors.
Olatunde stated this in Ado Ekiti during a one-day capacity workshop on effective service, organised by a non-governmental organisation, ‘SocialAction’ and supported by United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), held in Ekiti State yesterday.
He noted that Nigeria would remain underdeveloped unless the third tier of government is fully independent and detached totally from the apron string and control of the states.
The NULGE boss said: “Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution allows for democratically elected officials in all the 774 local government areas across the country. 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, to actualise this autonomy fight. Let me say this, not until we allow autonomy at the local level, the budget formulation, implementation and evaluation wouldn’t be impactful.
“But the major problems of this struggle are the governors. They are powerful and 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 States turning it down.
“The Houses of Assembly are being controlled by the governors and can’t do anything in this regard. Also, no traditional ruler can face the governors and tell them that we need local government autonomy. That is the level we are, and it is very unfortunate.”
Meanwhile, a university lecturer, Prof. Oluwadare, lamented that various military regimes that had ruled Nigeria, managed the local government affairs better in terms of independence than any democratic dispensation since 1999.
Oluwadare, a Professor of Sociology at the Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, and an NGO resource person, said: “Under the military rule, the local governments were better managed than what we are getting today.
“I could remember the good old days when the drainages, Trunk C roads and rural roads, health centre in some communities were provided by the councils, which made communities to benefit from the government far more than what we are experiencing today.
“The best way we can achieve development is by getting autonomy for the local government and enforcing transparency for the purpose of delivering democracy dividends to the people.”