Governors have perfected plans to mobilise members of their state Houses of Assembly to reject the autonomy granted local governments by the members of the National Assembly, The Complete News has gathered.
Since the news came public, there have been mixed reactions among politicians and other stakeholders in the polity.
Jonah Jang led faction of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum has already condemned the action of the national assembly.
It said the action of the lawmakers, which if agreed to by the majority of the state houses of assembly, would grant financial and administrative autonomy to the local governments.
This, he said, was not in tandem with the yearnings of the people.
In the same vein, the Chairman of Yaba Local Government in Lagos, Mr. Jide Jimoh described the autonomy as misplaced. He argued that the status quo had served the interest of the people effectively warning that any attempt by the Federal Government to hijack the supervision of the local governments from the state would be resisted.
It would be recalled that the two chambers of the National Assembly had during the amendment to the Constitution, granted 774 Local Government Councils in Nigeria financial and administrative autonomy through amendment of section 7.
The autonomy granted the local councils in the federation include strengthening their administration by providing for their funding, tenure, elections and to clearly delineate their powers and responsibilities to ensure effective service delivery and insulate them from undue and counter-productive interference from state governments.
