The House of Representatives, yesterday, passed for second reading, a bill seeking to give local government full financial and administrative autonomy.
\nThe bill also seeks to make local councils have a uniform tenure across the states.
\nThe legislation is titled \u2018A Bill for an Act to Further Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Provide for the Financial and Administrative Autonomy of Local Government Councils and Uniformity of Tenure Across the Country; and for Related Matters.\u2019
\nThe sponsor of the bill, Mr Munsur Soro, while leading debate on the bill, said the proposal was necessary at a time when there is \u201cmonumental development\u201d at the grass roots. He stated that crafters of the Constitution, in their wisdom, guaranteed the independence of the third their of government.
\nSoro said, \u201cHowever, the present reality is a great contrast with the original provisions of the Constitution. Politically, the local governments lack autonomy as the state governments interfere in their elections. Administratively, the local governments lack independence as the state governments determine their staff recruitment and discipline. Financially, the local government councils are not independent as their funds are often withheld by the state governments through the state joints account.\u201d
\nThe Deputy Speaker, Hon Ahmed Wase, who presided over the plenary, however, noted that not all states had not conducted local government elections, while some governors did not interfere in the affairs of the councils.
\nWase said, \u201cThis is a bill that has passed through this House\u2026this is the third time it is being brought on the floor of the House. I want to appeal that we need to put some caution. It is not all governors that are involved in those activities. So, we should not use sweeping words on all of them. My appeal is also that it is a constitutional matter. It will still require the state assemblies. It is very important. So, I want to appeal to all of us that the intention of the bill is to bring good governance across the country.\u201d
\nWase, then, put adoption of the motion for second reading and it was unanimously approved.
\nHowever, the Spokesman for the House of Representatives, Rep. Benjamin Kalu (APC-Abia) says the house is struggling to carry out its Legislative duties due to paucity of funds.
\nKalu made this known while briefing journalists at the National Assembly Complex, yesterday in Abuja.
\nHe said that leadership of the house was managing the available resources to implement prioritised legislative activities.
\n\u201cThe house is struggling with funds, the activities of the house are bigger than the budget and most people do not know this.
\n\u201cIf committee complains, I understand but it is not because their duties are not important or the house does not want to fund them, the funding will eventually come.
\n\u201cI do not know how the public will react to this, but sometimes they react in ignorance and mount pressure on the house; our budget is the same with what we have 10 years ago.
\n\u201cThe Nigerian people should be patient with us, we will do our best to ensure quality representation,\u201d he said.
\nKalu said the house was working hard to make sure Nigerians understood the true situation of things, charging the media on proper reportage.
\nMeanwhile, the House of Representatives has urged the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to arrest and prosecute people using paracetamol to cook meat and others using bleach to process cassava.
\nThe House reached the resolution following the consideration of a motion on matter of urgent importance moved by Dozie Nwankwo, yesterday.
\nNwankwo stated that there was occurrence of such practice in Osun State.
\nHe said that \u201cpractice of using bleach and paracetamol on food products is highly detrimental to human health.\u201d
\nThe House, therefore, resolved to urge the Ministry of Health to ensure that a blueprint for practices in the public food sector was available to the public for implementation.
\nIt mandated the committee on healthcare services to ensure compliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The House of Representatives, yesterday, passed for second reading, a bill seeking to give local government full financial and administrative autonomy. The bill also seeks to make local councils have a uniform tenure across the states. The legislation is titled \u2018A Bill for an Act to Further Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":210041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=226789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/210041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=226789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=226789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetidenewsonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=226789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}