Local govt autonomy empowering democracy at grassroots

WITHOUT much ado, it’s widely accepted that the local government is the government of the people at the grassroots, a government that is closer to the people. The issue of the autonomous of the local governments in Nigeria should be a dream come true in order to effectively solidify democracy at the grassroots level.

Local government should stand on its own and develop its local government area without any restriction from the state. We can’t consider its autonomy to be a state within a state but a more active local government and this will bring good development, bad roads will be fixed and other infrastructural contracts above #500,000 could be done without the state government getting involved.

Furthermore, the national electoral body should be saddled with the responsibilities to conduct local government elections in order to conduct a free and fair election at the grassroots level. The state government should not be allowed to conduct local government election because of manipulation and to stop governors bringing their loyalist to head the local governments.

Some claim that the local government autonomy will lead to corruption at the local government level and also it will give more power to the local government but I disagree with that notion. If local governments could be managed properly it will operate well and invariably function effectively since we’ve law enforcement agencies.

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All we want is an independent local government and not a dependable local government, democracy should start from the local government level.

Local government should be detached from the apron strings of the state government. Let the local government stand on its own and have time to think about the best way to develop the local government.

Local government is an important tier of government which needs to be independent and gain autonomy in order to serve people at the grassroots level better.

Local government autonomy should be approved, it is not a state within a state but a government representing the people at grassroots.

Kúnlé is an undergraduate of University of Ibadan studying History/Education.