Reps Considers Bill Seeking Removal Of LGs As Tier Of Govt

The House of Representatives has on Friday considered a bill seeking the removal of the local government as a constitutionally recognised and funded tier of government.

AllNews understands that the bill was sponsored by Solomon Bob, a People Democratic Party (PDP) representative from Rivers state. However, the bill was read for the first time on November 24, and due for second reading any time soon.

The “Bill seeks to remove Local Government as a tier of government in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and vest their creation, powers and funding exclusively in the state Houses of Assembly in accordance with the principle and practice of true federalism in a culturally diverse and territorially extensive country like Nigeria,” according to its explanatory memorandum.

Solomon Bob, when contacted, said, “The Bill will go some good way towards fixing the many centripetal anomalies in the 1999 Constitution.”

He added that “a federal constitution evinces power-sharing only between two tiers of government that is, the federated states and the central government.”

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The House of Representatives member added that local government “are normally the babies of the federated states which are at liberty to create as many as they can fund based on their developmental goals or needs, and they’re not, and should not, be a subject for federal legislation.”

He also said a federal constitution creating and listing local governments “gives it an air of immutability as no new ones can realistically be created for obvious reasons, while also denying the necessary flexibility to drive development and performance at that level.”