Don Seeks Autonomy For LGAs

A lecturer with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN),
Prof Francis Okoli, has called for the amendment of the 1999 Constitution to
make the local government councils become fully-autonomous.

Okoli canvassed this view in Akure in a paper he presented
at a national workshop on “Repositioning the Local Governments for Effective
Service Delivery in Nigeria.”

The lecturer, in a paper entitled “Inter-Governmental
Relations and the Survival of Local Governments in Nigeria, Security
Challenge,” said that local governments, as the closest to the people, should
enjoy financial autonomy.

He suggested that the legislative and executive powers of
the local government should be enshrined in the constitution immediately after
those of the federal and state governments.

To achieve this, the don said, Chapters 1, part II, Sections
4 and 5 of the 1999 Constitution should be amended.

“To remove state government’s interference in local
government finances, and thus ensure financial autonomy, Chapter 1, Section 7,
Sub-section 6 (b) should be deleted from the constitution.”

Okoli said that all those constitutional amendments were
necessary so that the structure of the local government under the 1999
Constitution and its functions would be in tandem with the expectation of the
presidential system of governance.

He said that if this was done, local government councils in
Nigeria would begin to function truly and effectively as the third tier of
government with minimum interference from both the federal and state
governments.