The National Assembly witnessed again another milestone as the Senate granted financial autonomy for state legislatures, judiciary and local governments in Nigeria.
This bills were approved on Tuesday, 1 March, 2022, during voting on the report of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bills, 2022.
This would not be the first time that the National Assembly is granting autonomy to the local government. The 7th and 8th Assembly did so. The Senate and the House of Representatives have never failed to approve this to the supposedly third tier of government.
The questions is, are the state Houses of Assembly ready to grant the same to the local governments? In the past, the state assemblies failed to get the two-third votes from all 36 states legislative arms.
The state legislators are allegedly to be under the control and influence of the state governors when it comes to giving autonomy to the LGs. The autonomy abolishes the idea of joint accounts of states and local governments. This would take away the hands of state governors on local government funds.
Now that the state house of assemblies have been granted their own autonomy too, this may suggest that the dance this time around could be different.
This means that the state House of Assembly would control their funding and determine their procedures without Executive interference.
This is an opportunity for them to leave their footprints on the sands of time and write their names with gold. Civil societies, key players and patriotic Nigerians should advocate and lobby the state legislators to move in the same direction with the National Assembly.
We can only hope for the best in our ever evolving political system in Nigeria. This will be a big step to good governance in this political dispensation if the two-third votes required to grant full autonomy to the local governments is obtained.
