A community leader, Mr Olubowale Kasunmu, has urged council chairmen to justify the confidence which the National Assembly have reposed in them with the passage of the Local Government Financial Autonomy Bill.
Kasunmu, Chairman, Community Development Committee (CDC) in the Agbado Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.
He said the advice has become necessary so that when the bill is finally signed into law by the president, the financial autonomy would not be abused by the council chairmen.
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According to him, it is a welcome development as the local government is the third tier of government and deserved to be autonomous.
“It will assist the local government and the LCDA to extend the dividend of democracy to the residents in various communities.
“The council chairmen will be able to determine what the community needs at any point in time because they are the closest to the community members,” he said.
Kasunmu said that when finally passed into law, communities would witness more infrastructural development in term of good roads, security and provision of health facilities.
“We are appealing to the council leaders to justify the confidence the National Assembly has in them by channeling the funds to appropriate projects, as this will help grow the grassroots,” he said.
Alhaji Ganiyu Egunjobi, Executive Chairman, Agege Local Government, also lauded National Assembly for granting financial autonomy to the local councils.
Egunjobi said that the financial autonomy would fast track infrastructural development at the grassroots.
“This is a welcome development because the more funds that are given to the local councils the more infrastructure they will be able to put in place in the communities.
“We commend the present leadership of the National Assembly for their hard work and for recognising the grassroots,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that last Tuesday the Senate passed the bill to grant financial and administrative autonomy to local councils.
The proposed law seeks to amend the constitution to repeal the State Joint Local Government Account.
The bill provides for a special account where all allocations due to the local governments’ from the federation account and state government will be paid into.
In the bill, each local government council is to create and maintain its own special account to be called Local Government Allocation Account into which all the allocations will be paid.(NAN)
