Obasanjo berates state governors for opposing local autonomy calling them enemies of progress

FORMER president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has accused state governments of hindering the country's socio-economic development by using joint accounts to incapacitate and steal local governments’ funds.

 

Speaking yesterday while hosting members of non-governmental organisation Friends of Democracy, at his residence at Oke-Mosan in Abeokuta, Chief Obasanjo also accused the state governments that were opposed to local government autonomy of being responsible for their financial incapacitation. According to Chief Obasanjo, local government reforms carried out in 1976 was meant to make the councils a third tier of government and not an appendage of either of the two tiers of government.

 

He expressed regret that state governments, which he said were autonomous, had been opposed to the agitation for local government autonomy. Chief Obasanjo lamented the fact that the present situation in many local governments in the country was so pathetic that they can no longer perform their functions particularly the payment of their workers’ salaries.

 

At the meeting, the group had sought the former president’s support for the Local Government Autonomy Bill which had been passed by the National Assembly but still requires the nod of not less than 24 state houses of assembly. Responding to them, Chief Obasanjo asked the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees to demand local autonomy autonomy in the interest of the people at the grassroots.

 

Chief Obasanjo said: “When in 1976, we brought in local government reforms, it was meant to be the third tier of the government and not meant to be subjected to the whims and caprices of any other government. Just the same way that the state government is autonomous from the federal government, so too local government is meant to be autonomous from the state government.

 

“But from what we know, by design, most states have incapacitated the local government system and they have virtually stolen the local governments’ money in what they called joint account.  So, what we have across the country are local government areas that have functions but cannot perform the functions."

 

He added that after the National Assembly passed the local government autonomy bill, only nine state houses of assembly of the 24 required constitutionally have followed suit. Chief Obasanjo said:  “I am proud of those states because they are what you will call progressive states that really believe in democracy.

 

“My own state Ogun, is one of them, so I will say kudos to Ogun State, while in the south-south, only Bayelsa and Cross River states have signed it. In the northeast, it’s only Bauchi, in the northwest, it’s only Sokoto and in the north central, we have four states in Kwara, Niger, Plateau and Benue that have passed it, so I will say kudos to the executives and the legislatures of those states.

 

“Chief Obasanjo said those state executives and the legislatures that have prevented the bill from being passed must be taken as the enemy of the people and they should be treated as such. He asked why they who enjoy autonomy from the federal government do not want local governments to also enjoy autonomy.

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