State assemblies have not rejected LG autonomy – NULGE

The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has debunked insinuations that the Local Government Autonomy (LGA) Bill has been rejected by Houses of Assembly in the ongoing constitutional amendment process.

The union said the bill was still under consideration by 26 Houses of Assembly as only 10 had considered the bill and passed it to the Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of Houses of Assembly for transmission to the National Assembly.

President of NULGE, Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel, explained that the National Assembly sent 15 different bills to the state assemblies, of which LGA Bill was one.

Among the 10 states that have considered it, eight states: Kwara, Benue, Niger, Plateau, Bauchi, Cross River, Bayelsa and Ogun voted for the autonomy while two states: Edo and Imo, voted against it.

Khaleel said after seeking clarification from the Chairman, Conference of Speakers and senior officials of the National Assembly, NULGE discovered that Rivers and Lagos had not even worked on the bill, while the remaining 24, who joined the other 10 states to transmit it to the National Assembly, said they stepped the bill down for further consultation.

“So, 24 Houses of Assembly are still working on it, many of them are already holding public hearing on it.

For example, Sokoto State just conducted public hearing on the bill. Gombe just called for memorandum.

“It is just that only eight so far have voted for it among 10 states who have fully considered it. It is possible that we will still get the remaining 16 states, out of the remaining states. So, we can’t say local government autonomy has been rejected. It is work in progress,” Khaleel said.

He further explained that the conference of speakers decided to transmit to the National Assembly the bills that had already been considered by some state assemblies rather than wait till all the states completed work on all the 15 bills.

He noted that the Speaker of the House of Representatives “perhaps thought” that the autonomy bill had been rejected because he was not properly briefed before making the statement.

“This important observation is necessary so that it would not give a wrong signal to the 24 remaining states who are still working on the autonomy bill, to perhaps think that since the bill has been rejected, there is no need to debate and vote in its favour again,”he said

He, therefore, appealed to the remaining states yet to conclude work on it to expedite action and vote in favour of autonomy.

He called on the National Assembly to keep the window open for other states to conclude their work on “the bill that will liberate people at the grassroots and bring the dividends of democracy to them.”