The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development
(Centre LSD) in collaboration with the Civil Society Organisations cum Media
Roundtable drummed support for Local Government (LG) autonomy, reports ITRealms.
The one-day roundtable was organized in partnership with
Christian Aid with funding from UKAID under her Voice to the People (V2P)
project, on Thursday September 21, 2017 in Kaduna to galvanize CSOs and media
in the North West geopolitical zone to sustain the momentum around the issue of
Local Government Autonomy and push for the passage of the bill at the
subnational stages leveraging on the current constitution review process.
The Programme Officer of the Centre, Mr. Vincent Dania, said
that Local Government Financial Autonomy bill seeks to abolish the state-local
government joint allocation which puts enormous finances and control in the
hands of state governors.
“The bill, if passed, will have positive implications for
development in Nigeria especially at the grassroots level, hence the need for
its engagement at all levels is critical,” he said.
Dania, also noted that a financially autonomous local
government system that recognizes the place of citizens’ participation in
decision-making, will ensure not just the virility of local governments to
deliver services at the grassroots level but also bring about widespread
development to communities across the country.
He commended the senate for passing the bill on local
government financial autonomy amongst others in the ongoing constitution review
process, the release enjoined Civil Society Organizations, the media, social
media influencers as well as all well-meaning Nigerian citizens to sustain the
push at the subnational level to ensure
the bill (s) scales through with their relevant provisions not tinkered with
during the review stage by legislators at the State level.
As said by him, this was in the interest of the federalist
principles Nigeria has opted for, and for ensuring that the local government,
which is the arm of government that is closest to the people, performs her
statutory function of being the engine of community and rural development.
He enjoined all well-meaning Nigerian citizens to share
their opinions and contribute to the deliberations on social media platforms including
Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp to name a few.
Uboshe Uboshe/GEE
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