Bill on mandatory local government councils’ elections passes first reading

The House of Representatives on Tuesday in Abuja passed for the second reading a bill to amend the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 for states to have elected local government councils.
Presenting the bill during plenary, the sponsor, Edward Pwajok, said the amendment intended to mandate states to have democratically-elected local government councils before they can access funds from the capital market.
Pwajok expressed concern that some state governors run the administration of local government areas through caretaker committees in violation of the provisions of the Constitution.
According to him, having therefore established the autonomy of the local government council as an independent level of government, the structure upon which it is to be run must as of necessity be properly defined.
Pwajok said that the government of every state should subject to the Constitution and ensure that councils existed under a law which provided for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils.
Pwajok said: “Once that power has been properly exercised, the government of the state has no responsibility of meddling in the affairs of the local government councils.
“It should immediately hands off and allow the council to conduct its activities in accordance with the various provisions of the Constitution.,’’
Contributing, the Minority Leader of the House, Leo Ogor, said the amendment would pose a challenge for states in seeing the need to ensure the existence of democratically-elected local government councils.
Ogor, however, expressed worry that the Constitution did not provide penalties for state governments that violated the establishment of elected councils.
Ogor said: “Because there are no penalties in this regard, state governments rather work with caretaker committees in clear violation of section 11 of the constitution.
“This does not encourage checks and balances in the administration of local government councils.”
After the debate, the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, referred the Bill to the Committee on Finance.