Anticipating LG autonomy from Nigeria’s structure unrealistic – Fashola

Former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, says it will be unrealistic to expect the local governments in Nigeria to function independently under the current constitution.

This is amid the growing call for local government autonomy in Nigeria.

Fashola made this statement on Saturday, when he featured on ‘Sunrise’, a programme on Channels Television.

The former Lagos State Governor stated that local councils cannot carry out their responsibilities based on the interference of the state houses of assembly and state governments.

According to him, the fact that the state houses of assembly make laws for local governments is an external influence that contradicts the idea of autonomy.

“I think that the debate we must have, debate we must have, is whether we really want autonomous local governments. It’s a debate that must be had. As it stands today, it is unrealistic to expect autonomy for local governments created by the Constitution.

“They were not meant to be autonomous; that is my view after a very close reading of certain provisions of the Constitution. Some of those provisions provide, for example, that the local government in its economic activities and all of that will have laws made for it by the state House of Assembly,” he said.

Fashola added that land, which is an asset that local governments require to provide infrastructure, is controlled by the state governments.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria further argued that the cases of many local governments defaulting in the payment of salaries and pensions of primary healthcare workers, primary school teachers, at the return of democracy in 1999, partly gave rise to a joint account between the states and the councils.

Weighing in on the Supreme Court’s ruling on LG autonomy, the senior lawyer said though no patriot would say that all was well with the state of local governments in Nigeria, legal practitioners had mixed opinions as to whether the Supreme Court judgment on LG autonomy could stand the constitutional scrutiny.

He, however, said the conduct of council elections was a good step towards making local governments independent.

DAILY POST recalls that in July 2024, the apex court barred governors from dissolving democratically elected local government councils and granted financial autonomy to local governments in Nigeria.