A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Prof Paul Ananaba, has faulted state governors over the inability of the National Assembly to progress with the intended constitutional amendment.
Chairman of the National Assembly Constitution Review Committee, Ovie Omo-Agege, last week said 25 state houses of assembly have refused to act on the 44 constitutional bills passed and transmitted to them. He said the other states will not act on the bills unless the National Assembly passes four new bills they proposed.
While reacting to this development, Ananaba said the lack of independence of the state legislatures is the real cause of the snag in the constitution amendment process.
“If you look at the type of politics played in the states, there are very few states that have independent assemblies. The governors control these houses of assembly and that is why if a governor wants to remove a deputy governor for example, before you turn around the person is removed even when judicial proceedings are ongoing,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday.
“When you see many of those assemblies writing, it is the executive of that state that is writing. You dare not challenge the governor of your state as a member of the House of Assembly.
“When you give local government autonomy, the state governments are likely to collapse. How do these states make money? You know the problem of section 162 of the Constitution, state joint account. So, when these monies come, how many of these local governments indeed get their allocation as they come from FAC?”
When asked if that means there won’t be local government autonomy again if the governors continue to have strongholds in the state assemblies, the senior lawyer said that is why the constitutional amendment is needed.
“That is why that amendment is being proposed. If that amendment goes through, remember like I said Section 162 of the Constitution talks about state joint account and that is where the problem comes from. So, in a way, the governors are acting within the provisions of the constitution but it may not be in the best interest of the system.
“We need to allow the three levels of the government to have some degree of autonomy and operate properly. If the constitution remains as it is, local governments will just be appendages to governors and I don’t see any governor that will allow local government autonomy to take place.”
Ananaba however believes that Nigerians can correct the anomaly through the ballot by not voting for governorship candidates that are not in support of local government autonomy.
“I will expect Nigerians to use their PVCs to correct it. Don’t vote for any governorship candidate that does not make local government autonomy one of its selling points or programmes. Any governor that will not say it and mean it will not allow it to happen. It is only when this local government autonomy comes into play that state governments will now sit down and do governance,” he said.
Credit: Channels
