LAGOS – Mr Olukayode Adeyemi, a former chairman, Community Development Area (CDA), Iponrin Estate, Surulere, Lagos, said on Wednesday that granting financial autonomy to local councils would enable them to complete capital projects.
The National Assembly last week approved the constitutional amendment seeking to give financial autonomy to the third tier of government.
Adeyemi told NAN in Lagos that the autonomy would go a long way in speeding-up growth in the LGA because the councils would no longer be at the mercy of the state governments.
“It’s a good step the federal government has taken if you look at the past years, when the local government allocations were being paid into state governments’ accounts each local government was at the mercy of the state government.
“But now that the autonomy has been given to them, they can now embark on capital projects by themselves. Not only patching of roads, they can now construct their roads.
“In the past when they were autonomous before the power was taken out of them you saw local governments buying all types of caterpillars to do and undo things by themselves because they weren’t taking orders from any governor.
“They could manage their resources very well, they could plan as they liked not at the mercy of anybody.
“I can tell you without mincing words that with this autonomy, you will see many local governments even competing with the state government.“
The chairman also said that independent candidacy for election was a welcome idea but that such candidate must have proved himself or herself worthy before contesting against any party.
“It is a good development for the country. But whoever wants to say `I am` must have done something for the masses; he must be transparent and must be hard-working.
“Before your name is heard, without coming from any association or political party, you must be an outstanding man and even the communities are saying good things about what he can do and what he has done.
“You will see that such people will be able to stand tall among equals because the news of what he can do and what he has done has travelled round; somebody that the community can rely upon.
“It is a welcome idea and I know that come 2019, we will see candidates standing out as private candidates to contest elections either for the presidency, governorship or local government.“
NAN reports that on Oct. 28, the Lagos State Government directed all its local council chairmen and councillors to vacate their offices as their tenures had expired.
According to Adeyemi, the handover to council managers will pave way for new ideas to be injected into local governments. (NAN)