The Speaker of Oyo Assembly and Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly in Nigeria, Adebo Ogundoyin, on Monday, said the various states of the federation may not allow local government to have administrative and financial autonomy because of the fear that the federal government may use the local government against them.
According to The Nation, Ogundoyin, who spoke at a national discourse on Nigeria’s security challenges and good governance at the local government levels organised by the House of Representatives said granting financial autonomy to the level government will engender massive corruption at the local level.
He argued that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other anti-graft agencies will not have the required manpower and financial resources to investigate corruption at the local level.
Ogundoyin said: “I would like us to consider two different scenarios for this discourse. Let us imagine a system of government that operates financial autonomy for Local Governments. Some of the problems I foresee would afflict the Local Governments if financial autonomy is granted include:
“Inadequate resources (especially in urbanized Local Governments). This is going to be closely followed by mismanagement or misappropriation of funds or put simply as corruption. The LGA will be answerable to the Federal Government and other federal agencies e.g EFCC, House of Representatives which will have oversight functions over the LGA).
“Then, there is the issue of Accountability and Transparency which is already a challenge at both National and sub-National levels. Going by what we see during oversights these problems already persist in an incapacitated Local Government system.
“One can only imagine the extent of these problems once there are more resources given to them directly.
“Let us also not forget the possibility of the Federal Government usurping the roles of the State Governments as the popular saying goes — “He who pays the piper dictates the tune”. It’s therefore the general belief of the States that the Center can use the Local Government as an instrument against them.
“On the other hand, let us equally imagine a scenario where state governments have the authority to determine the number of Local Government they choose to have for administrative purposes. For me, it is then that we will start enjoying more dividends of True Federalism. So, the issue of the creation of local governments by states is yet another challenge.
“The problem of low revenue generation capacity for Local Governments is another issue. It’s common belief that the state Government hinders the ability of the local governments to generate revenue but we also have to recognize that most local governments are in the rural environments which makes it more difficult for them to generate revenue.
“It is rather worrisome that most Local Governments depend on the Federation accounts for their spending, including payment of staff salary.”
What are your reactions to Speaker of Oyo Assembly on why local government autonomy can not be granted?
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