One year after: Lagos Assembly sets up committee to evaluate LGs, LCDAs’ performance

One year after council elections, the Lagos Assembly has set up a nine-man committee to assess activities of the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas in the state.
This followed a motion moved by Moshood Oshun, Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts (State) in conjunction with other lawmakers on the floor of the House on Tuesday.
The motion was seconded by Adedamola Kasunmu.
According to Oshun, one year after inauguration of council chairmen and councillors across the state, it has become imperative to oversight the grassroot governance.
He said: “It is important to assess the local governments and local council development areas to see if they conform to the Administrative Guideline of 2011.
“The local governments are expected to assist in the development of the state. It is important to evaluate how they have impacted on the state and for the committee of the House to assess them.”
The lawmaker said that it was important to mandate the appropriate committee of the House to evaluate the activities of the local governments.
Also commenting, Rotimi Olowo said: “The local governments are the babies of the House; the House must inspect how they have been spending the money being allocated to them”.
Olowo added: “The House must look at the capital and recurrent expenditures of the local councils and see if they are in tandem with the administrative guidelines.
Segun Olulade, Chairman, House Committee on Health Services, said that the committee should do an on-the-spot assessment of the activities of the local governments.
The Chairman, House Committee on Environment, Dayo Saka-Fafunmi, said the motion as timely.
Saka-Fafunmi said: “While some local government chairmen have been working, some others have not been performing their duties effectively.
“If the local governments fail, then all eyes would be on the state government.”
Abiodun Tobun, Chairman, House Committee on Works and Infrastructure said that the House should look at the level of the Internally Generated Revenue of the councils and development projects.
In his ruling, the Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa, stressed that it was important for the House to audit the local governments and LCDAs to ensure that they do their jobs.
Obasa said: “The local governments were established for grassroot development. This is a very good period for the assessment of the local governments as they collect their allocation regularly.
“We need to encourage those that are doing well and charge those that are not doing well to do more.
“We should look at the parliament at the local government if they are being supported by the councils and see how we can help them.”
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the nine-man committee is headed by Rotimi Olowo.
The state conducted its last council election on July 22, 2017.