A former presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adamu Garba, has called for the scrapping of local governments in Nigeria.
Garba said local governments should be scrapped because State governors use it as a back channel to loot funds, stressing that its power should be transferred to traditional rulers within their domain.
“Local governments take their legislation from the state assemblies, and you know what that means. Autonomy or not, the LGs are still ATMs of some state governors.
“In reality, there is no country on earth that has a third tier of government except Nigeria. Since it proved to be non-workable, why not scrap it?
“Instead of struggling to get constitutional authority for our traditional rulers, they should be handed over the local government councils and let them run it according to the local culture and tradition of the people within their domain.
“All entitlements due to LGs should be channeled to the leadership of the traditional rulers of such areas. A form of pre-colonial Native Authority we used to have and was very very effective.”
Recall that more than one year after local government areas got what could be described as victory landmark judgement, they are yet to be freed from the grip of state governors.
In July 2024, the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of local government autonomy, affirming the financial and administrative independence of Nigeria’s 774 local councils by declaring actions by state governments unconstitutional.
The landmark judgment prohibited states from dissolving elected councils, installing caretaker committees, withholding funds allocated to local governments from the federation account, and managing local government finances.
However, the full implementation of that judgement remains a mirage, opening further calls that the local government system should be scrapped.
The National Chairman of Action Alliance (AA), Kenneth Udeze, disagreed with the clamour for the scrapping of local governments in Nigeria.
Udeze pointed out that local governments are a necessary tool in conveying the dividends of democracy to the grassroots.
Speaking with newsmen, Udeze said: “I don’t agree with that school of thought at all, the only challenge we have in Nigeria is leadership and bad governance that has brought us down to our knees where we are today.
“Yes, in as much as some people can argue that local government is a backend for people to cash out, where things are done properly, we can’t say we have three tiers of government from the federal to state and local government and at the end of the day, we still have issues.
“If the Supreme Court of the land has actually made a pronouncement with respect to issues of sending the local government allocations directly to them with the hopes that leaders, politicians, and administrators make sure that the strict letters of the pronouncement of the Supreme court should be respected, for us in the Action Alliance and as the National chairman of a political party in this country, with respect to the constitution amendment that is going on, we emphasize that local government autonomy should remain extant and that issues that has to do with allowing the government to function on its own, that is the only way leadership can be felt at the grassroot.
