By Comrade Nasir.
The honorable member representing Ankpa 2 constituency at the Kogi State House of Assembly, Hon Alfa Mommoh Rabiu has hailed the move for financial autonomy and INEC conduct of local government areas in Nigeria saying it will facilitate speedy and meaningful development at the grassroots level.
Hon Rabiu stated this while reacting to the bill which was made public by the Nigerian senate as part of the ongoing constitutional amendments. Speaking further, he also threw his support to the move for financial autonomy for state houses of assembly hoping that the bill scales through this time even as he stressed that the present state assemblies has less than two years to go but posterity requires that he adds voice to it.
In his words: “It is a very good development for INEC to take over the conduct of council elections as this will not only relieve states the financial burden of the process but also guarantee non the interference of state governments in the election. For this to be very effective, there must be a work in synergy towards abolishing the present Joint Account Allocation Committee, this way, federal allocations for local government will go straight into their various accounts.”
On the issue of financial autonomy for house of assemblies, he pointed out that “state assemblies will be at the wish and desire of state governors if they are not granted the autonomy and this will truncate effective checks and balances. This is not the first time, the issue of assembly autonomy is coming up but unfortunately, there was no majority vote across the thirty six states during the 2010 constitution amendment process and that is why we are where we are today.”
It is an unarguable fact that the legislature being the third tier of government requires full independence from state governments if the much alleged slumber of house of assembly members must be awakened. Moreover, they are the representatives of the common masses.
