Guardian

GOVERNOR of Osun State, Rauf Aregbesola, and a constitutional lawyer, Prof. Itse Sagay (SAN), Tuesday criticised the move by the Federal Government and the National Assembly to legitimise the autonomy of local governments in the country.

But the Minister of State in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Olajumoke Akinjide declared her support for autonomy for the local government administration in the country, including the FCT.

Aregbesola and Sagay said there is no federal system anywhere in the world that can be pointed to as an example that represents what the Federal Government is planning to foist on the nation.  “In a federal system, there is no provision for local government as a federating partner and to talk of one is to engage in peddling ‘Federalism Fallacy,” Aregbesola stated

According to the governor, “the issues relating to the creation, delineation, and funding of local authorities, in a true federalism, are within the constitutional purview of the states which have political and juridical status that the local governments do not have.”

He explained that a true federalism, wherever it is being practised, has the Federal Government and the states as the federating units while the local governments merely serve as the administrative units.

Aregbesola made the stand in a paper he presented at the second edition of the national public discourse, with the theme “Local Government Authority: How Autonomous,” organised by the Public Affairs Directorate of CMC Connect, in association with O’Ken Ventures, at the Muson Centre, Lagos.

Sagay said he agreed with everything that the governor said, but added that Nigeria is a federation and therefore the issue of local government should reside fully with the states.

He explained that Nigeria is however a peculiar country and the only nation where the local governments are listed in the constitution. According to him, states are supposed to be autonomous and consequently should be able to create their local government and fashion out the way they should function.

Akinjide, who received the Executives of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), FCT chapter in her office yesterday, said an autonomous local government is desirable for Nigeria.

“We in the FCT are passionate about local government autonomy. We believe that without the local government, we cannot have true development at the grassroots level. And we believe that the funding of local government must be robust. The FCT and the local government must work together to plan and to execute projects and programmes for the people of the FCT.

“We are working assiduously to ensure that the FCT proves that local government autonomy is a desirable goal in Nigeria.”