Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said the much touted Local government autonomy can only be determined by Nigerians and not the National Assembly.
The Speaker who was speaking at a two-day leadership training for local government chairmen and councilors from Delta state sponsored by House Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, said Nigerians have the opportunity to decide what type of local government system they want through the ongoing constitutional amendment.
He said: “It’s not for us as legislators to do that. I’m sure you’re surprised. But it’s actually for the people to address. We have constitutional amendment, we will throw it to the people and they will make their decision.
“We did it the last time and went back to the states as required by the constitution. But we couldn’t get the 2/3rd. There is a process and we followed due process.
“We amended it last time but 2/3rd of the states did not agree with us. So it’s the people that will decide whether they want autonomy or not. We will do what we need to do as Constitution provides”.
The Speaker described the local government as “the foundation of democratic governments in Nigeria. Ideally, it ought to be the center of governance activities and government innovations that serve to improve quality of life for all Nigerians.
“The system we have in place now has not served as well because of obvious overemphasis on the centralised policy planning and implementation at the federal government level.
“We have an obligation to try as much as we can to change the status quo in favour of an alternative that serves present needs and meets future expectations.”
The Speaker stressed there has been a lot of misunderstanding about the local government system in the country while many elected local government chairmen and councillors do not understand the role for which they were elected.
