Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign and Domestic Debts, Senator Shehu Sani, has blamed state Houses of Assembly for failing to grant local governments’ autonomy.
Sani spoke while addressing members of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) at the grand finale of the “Local Government Autonomy Rally,” in Abuja, on Thursday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the rally, which was coordinated by the NULGE President, Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel, was also held in all the states of the federation and rounded off in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The rally was to protest the lack of autonomy by local governments.
The senator said funds allocated to local governments rarely got to them as state governments siphoned such funds for their personal use rather than for payment of salaries and execution of capital projects.
“The greatest obstacle of local government autonomy is the state assemblies being manipulated by state governors.
“State assemblies must rise up to the challenge and do the needful. We are here for you and we will stand by you to fight for local government autonomy,” Sani said.
The senator said the struggle to gain local government autonomy must be intense in the National Assembly and by state governments.
According to him, if the money allocated to local governments were properly utilised, we would not be where we are now facing recession.
“Present political leaders still have the same manifestos as those in the 1960s, we will give you water, electricity, infrastructure and so on but we do not get to see any of these.”
Also speaking, Senaor Abdullahi Gumel, Chairman Senate Committee on State and Local Government Administration, assured the union that the Senate would do all within its power to ensure local governments got autonomy.
Gumel, who represented the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said the Federal Government had given bailout funds of more than N405 billion to state governments to pay salaries.
“The reason we will support the local government autonomy is to make local governments independent.
“The Federal Government has no business providing primary healthcare, roads, and so on for states and local governments as these two arms of government are supposed to provide these infrastructure for their people,” Saraki said.
Earlier, NULGE president, Khaleel, said the rally was aimed at fighting for autonomy for local governments, as well as liberation of the masses for the future.
He said the local governments were no longer as functional as they used to be, because they had been hijacked by state governments.
According to him, this had disconnected people at the grassroots from the government.
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