By Abbanobi – Eku Onyekachi, Abuja
Members of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review concluded its two-day retreat on the amendments to the 1999 constitution on Saturday evening in Kano and unanimously agreed to include full autonomy for local governments in the nation’s legal document and expressed divergent views on the issue of state police.
Senators from the South-East and South- South geopolitical zones at the forum, advocated the creation of additional states.
The legislators bared their minds at the sidelines of the Retreat which was organised by the Senate panel in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC).Their decision to save the third tier of government from total collapse following the abuse of their roles by the state governors, may not be unconnected to the recent Supreme Court verdict and the pledge by Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, that the National Assembly would tinker with the constitution to legalise their full autonomy.
Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele; a former Chief Whip of the red chamber, Ali Ndume; Chairman Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa; Senators Abdulfatai Buhari, Osita Izunaso and Ned Nwoko in their various submissions insisted that full autonomy for local governments was long overdue. He noted that the current constitution placed the administration of local government in the hands of the state government but the exigencies of the current situation has made it necessary to make the third tier of government, completely independent.
On his own submission, Osita Izunaso said: “When we started in this country, local governments had full autonomy then and they were developing their areas. I believe in full autonomy of the local government. I am sure it is going to work. I don’t believe that LGs autonomy would empower council chairmen to impeach the governors. The fear does not arise and I don’t even believe in it.
The governors have immense constitution powers. Only the state assembly can move against the governor. The council chairmen don’t have the power. Governors and council chairmen should face their work.”
Also on his own, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari said: “Local government autonomy could only be achieved if their elections are conducted by an independent body. If that is not done, states will continue to siphon their money, through threats, through blackmail. If I just put you there as local government chairman, as the governor, definitely you will be answerable to me, but if am contesting my election people’s eyes will be on me and when I am able to perform, you can’t force me to take the money to the governor. If we want that Supreme Court judgement to hold water, we should expunge from the Constitution, that aspect of Joint Account.
Noting that the process of restructuring had started with the Supreme Court verdict on local government autonomy, Senator Sani Musa had this to say: “When you are talking about restructuring, we should be able to give the local governments, the autonomous power to be able to run their administration from the grassroot level so that the impact of governance can reach the grassroot.”
Similarly, Senator Ned Nwoko stated thus: “The local government has almost but died, there is really nothing happening there, it is just as a mere third tier of government. So any reforms that support what the Supreme Court had already done, it will help to reintroduce the ideals of having a local government. If we have an independent local government where elections are conducted by INEC for instance and they have their own money and they are able to take care of local securities and deal with hospitals and the rest of them, a lot will happen for good”
Divided on the issue of state police, those in support said insecurity would be tacked effected with state police while others said political opponents would be targeted by state governors. Musa who supported the idea said: “When we are talking about State Police, every state in this country is facing one insecurity or the other and I believe that if we look at the issue of State Police, it is good for us.”
However, Senator Ali Ndume said: “What we need is to increase the manpower of the police and improve their welfare for effective policing. State Police would be abused by the governors,” while Nwoko and Izunaso, maintained that the creation of additional states in their geopolitical zones was long overdue.
Izunaso said: “The most important agenda the South East Caucus in the National Assembly has is to push for equity and justice. We need an additional state in the South East so that we come to terms with other zones in the country that all have six each. While Izunaso maintained that a situation where the South East has five states when others have six, does not go well for balancing, adding that colleagues from other zones will see their reason.
“There are bills in that regard. For instance, I have my own Bill for the creation of Orlu State. There are two other bills from our colleague for the creation of two other states. We are going to sit back as a zone harmonise our positions, Izunaso said, while Nwoko ststed: “The Anioma state creation for me is something that has to be done, if that is the only state that is created in this period, I will not be surprised, and it’s agitation had been going on for almost 50 years, it is the oldest agitation for a state.”
