Soludo backs single term for politicians, rejects LG autonomy

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Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, has voiced his support for the growing calls for a single term for elected officeholders, contending that any form of autonomy for local government areas contradicts the principles of true federalism.

Speaking at The Platform Nigeria, a programme organised by Lagos-based Covenant Nation to mark 2024 Democracy Day, Soludo, who served as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) from 2004 to 2009, also proposed a single-parliament National Assembly due to the country’s declining revenue.

The event, themed ‘Democracy and the Free Market Economy,’ featured notable speakers such as former Minister of Works Babatunde Fashola; Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan-Kukah; and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.

“Sometimes, these conversations about single term might begin to make some sense so that you fix it, whether you say four years or five years, six years or seven years, single term,” Soludo stated.

“So, you are not thinking about the next election once you finish getting into this. I face that all day in my state. You want to get into this project; they say, ‘No, wait, you know you have an election’. And I say, ‘No, let’s get it; if we get there, we get there and if we lose, we lose.’”

There have been increased calls for local government autonomy in Nigeria. President Bola Tinubu has also supported the calls and in May, the Federal Government sued the 36 state governors over alleged misconduct in the administration of Local Government Areas.

He said, “Funny enough, more recently, some people are arguing for the autonomy of local governments, including some APC persons, which would take Nigeria back many decades from what a true federation is about.

“There is no federal system in the world where you have three federal units. The countries in America where we copied democracy, or there local governments, don’t go to the centre to collect money directly.

“Each states must have the power to design the kind of local government system that they want. That is what true federalism is about.”

Soludo said some responsibilities in the Exclusive List should be dropped by the Federal Government to sub-nationals.

“We need to tinker with the fiscal powers of the federal and state governments, devolve much of the responsibilities under the Exclusive List to the states, and allocate about 60 to 65 per cent of the revenues to the states, with each deciding on the local system to adopt.

“Why not consolidate the National Assembly into one with no more than five representatives per state? We don’t need a National Assembly costing over N300bn yearly to maintain. We don’t need it,” he said.

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