FOR some time now, states in the South Western part of the country have been creating Local Community Development Areas (LCDAs), which are to function like the Federal Government- recognised local governments.
The Lagos State government started this experiment during the tenure of former Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Since then, Osun, Ogun and Oyo states have followed suit. However, my problem is that I don’t really know what purpose the LCDAs are to serve, although the governments claim that they will bring development closer to the people.
Since the LCDAs are not recognised by the Federal Government, there will be no funding for them from the Federation Account, rather, the LCDAs carved out of the Federal Government-recognised local governments will only share out of the allocation of that local governments.
With this, I don’t think the LCDAs serve any purpose. In fact, it will create more job openings for the people, but in a situation whereby states are finding it hard to pay their workers, employing more workers to man the LCDAs will further increase the wage bill of government.
If the idea behind the LCDAs is to be able to reach more citizens in order to generate tax, then it will defeat the purpose of governance because before the government can morally call on the citizens to pay taxes, then it ought to have fulfilled its own side of the bargain by providing schools, health centres, housing, among others for them, but all these are lacking today.
- Jimoh Mumin
jimohmumin@yahoo.com
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