By Odimmegwa Johnpeter/Abuja
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has commended the National Assembly for accepting, inserting and passing into the draft amended constitution, its proposed amendments on Local Governments Reform and Labour issues. This is contained in a press statement by its President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba. His words, “We would wish to register our profound appreciation to the leadership and membership of the National Assembly; without whom this would not have been possible”.
According to Wabba, the 8th National Assembly has made history and shall be remembered for not bowing to the insular interest but the popular wishes of the people. The initiative, he noted is an improvement on the efforts of the previous assemblies, which goes to show that with tenacity and requisite experience Nigeria, will get its democracy right.
He further stated that with no doubt if passed into law, these amendments will free-up the local governments from the strangle-hold of state governments and widen the democratic space as well as restore the lost glory of local governments.
According to Wabba, a per-functional interrogation of the local government system as practiced in the past substantially accounted for: Continued encroachment of State Government on responsibilities of LGAs and erosion of Local Government Authority due to the meddlesomeness of State Governments; Highly constrained fiscal, administrative and political autonomy for Local Governments; Noncompliance by State Governments with the revenue allocation formula which stipulates that the states should contribute 10% of their internally generated revenue to the Local Governments and the imposition of extra budgetary expenditure on the Local Government by states; indeed, Local Governments are sometimes compelled to shoulder some responsibilities of expenditure of Federal Government Agencies like the Police, Customs and Excise, Immigration, the Judiciary, Commissions, e.t.c; Mandatory deductions for joint projects by the State and Federal Governments, which have no direct bearing on the lives of the people at the grassroots. These deductions constitute a major drain on the resources of the Local Governments and negatively affect the implementation of programmes for the benefits of the local populace; Capacity constraints which include over-dependence on the Federal and State Governments for policy initiatives and programme development; Constitutional ambiguity in (a) responsibility for creating LGA (b) clearly delineating areas of responsibilities between States and LGAs in some concurrent areas, such as education and health (c) lack of clarity of roles in administering urban centres; Imposition of undemocratic structures (caretaker committees) to administer Local Governments contrary to section 7 of the 1999 constitution; Manipulation of State Independent Electoral Commissions to scuttle popular will at the grassroots by way of imposing surrogates whose primary motivation is to loot the treasury for their grand masters.
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According to Wabba, it is evident that autonomy will: Ensure that the Local Government system develop as a third tier of government with the capacity to discharge its constitutional responsibilities to its constituents; Strengthen democratic decentralization of power and put power back in the hands of the citizenry at the grassroots level of governance; Give a voice to the voiceless, especially the minorities who have been shortchanged at the State and Federal levels of Government; Make Local Governments training ground for leadership at State and Federal levels of power; Deliver development to about 180million Nigerians; Stem rural-urban migration; Lower crime rate; Quicken payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities; Make the work environment less hostile for Nigerians and less threatening to the system; Put more power in the hands of the citizenry and their institutions and this help them strengthen their demand for accountability and social justice.
Wabba also appealed on the members of the 36 State House of Assembly to be on the side of the people and history by displaying the courage of the colleagues at the National Assembly by giving their unqualified support.
Lastly, he commended the NLC affiliates namely: Nigeria Union of Teachers, Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees and the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria for harmonizing their common position to confront their challenges in the Local Government, and urge them to continue in solidarity and oneness, for the struggle to actualize full autonomy for Local Government in Nigeria.