The Vice Chairman of Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman, has said that financial autonomy for Local Government Areas in the country will give room for rapid growth and development at the grassroots level.
A statement signed by Abatemi-Usman’s Special Assistant on Media, Michael Jegede, indicated that the senator representing Kogi Central Senator District on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, stated this while presenting the lead debate on the bill seeking to alter the provisions of the 1999 constitution to provide for financial autonomy for local government councils in Nigeria.
In his presentation on the bill, which scaled through second reading and has been referred to Senate Committee on Constitution Review, the senator said it was noted during the local government reforms of 1976 that “Local Governments have over the years suffered from the continued whittling down of their power, and State governments had continued to encroach upon what would normally have been the exclusive preserves of local governments and consequently there has been a divorce between the people and government at their most basic levels.”
According to him, the situation has not changed as local governments are still prevented from functioning the way they should because of lack of funds.
“There is no gainsaying that the critical roles of local governments have indeed been impaired, nay out-rightly subverted because of corruption in some instances by states. In other cases, the process of disbursement of the accruable funds, as allocated from the Federation Account, to the respect beneficiary local councils more often get grossly abused; while some states deduct certain percentage before the release of the balance, in the name of servicing social amenities and infrastructure, which are non-existent, in most cases, others simply hold on, at will,” Abatemi-Usman explained.
For him, the discontinuation of the state/local governments joint account will help to eradicate or substantially check “delay in states’ release of the funds to the respective LGA; wanton and arbitrary deductions by States; utilisation of the provision as a suppressive tool by some governors.”
He added: “It would also ensure for LGAs the facilitation of project execution, enhance effective service delivery, efficiency, and quick response to the needs of the citizenry whose peculiar internal affairs the local governments directly oversee.”