In a bid to strengthen democracy in Nigeria, the Vice President of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, Comrade Emmanuel Fashe, has disclosed that about 18 states in Nigeria have passed the Local Government Autonomy Bill.
Comrade Fashe, while speaking exclusively via phone with The Quest Times on Friday, said “We’re still advocating for more states of the federation to pass the Local Government Autonomy Bill. As we’re speaking now, 18 states have passed the Bill, remaining 14 others.
“We are appealing to states that have not passed the bill to do so. Though some of them are complaining that there is no time now because of the elections, but we are doing this in the interest of Nigerians.”
According to him, decentralizing the system to make the Local Government to operate independently from the state governments will enable resources to penetrate to people at the grassroots.
Comrade Fashe stressed that the speech by the Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege yesterday is in tune with their interest to ensure passage of the bill as priority.
The Quest Times had Published Senator Omo-Agege’s stance on Local Government Autonomy. The senator had disclosed that despite the challenge of the governors and their State Houses of Assembly holding back the piece of legislation, the National Assembly is optimistic that the bills will be passed.
The Bill seeks Financial and Administrative Autonomy for the third tier of Government.