Financial autonomy alone cannot fully liberate the Local Governments from governors intrusion.
A university don and former Abia state Finance and Economic Planning Commissioner Dr Philips Nto has posited that financial autonomy to local governments in the country is not enough to fully liberate them from the state governors intrusion.
He consequently opined that for the local governments to function optimally and serve the people effectively, they must also be politically and administratively autonomous.
Nto who spoke to Cross Country News on Nigeria Reports.ng in reaction to the Supreme court last week judgement in favour of financial autonomy to the third tier of government, said the judgment is only the beginning of a journey to completely remove the local governments from the control of the governors.
He advocated the abrogation of the Local Government Service Commission, stating that by doing so , the governors would no longer have the powers to appoint the Councils’ Heads of Service, Treasurers , Auditors, and other key staff of the local governments.
He said that until such a drastic step is taken, ” governors will either by election or selection put in their stooges who will do their bidding, irrespective of the so called Financial autonomy ”
Dr Nto who is a lecturer at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike Abia state, also argued that while it is desirable for the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC ) to conduct elections into the local governments, there is no guarantee that the governors would still not manipulate the elections to install their stooges stressing that it is only when the local governments achieve political and administrative independence from the governors that the system will be sanitized.
He urged the National Assembly to take a cue from what the Supreme Court has done and ensure that the much needed constitutional reforms are carried out to achieve full autonomy for the local governments, pointing out that ” the current provision which established local government Service Commission does not sit well for full autonomy for local governments hence, something should be done about it”.
He however commended president Bola Ahmed Tinubu led federal government for couragiously curtailing the excesses of some governors who had converted local government funds “as their pocket money”.
