Kunle Adelabu
Conflicting nature of the Nigerian constitution as amended and other laws that deal with the establishment and administration of the local government in the country have been adduced as major problems that needed to be corrected if the local governments are to work effectively.
This was the position of Mr Fatai Lasisi, the former Special Adviser to Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode and former Council Treasurer, at the panel session, themed, “Towards an effective local government administration”.
The event, which was held last week at the 500 – seater auditorium of the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu main campus, was organized by the Concerned Ikorodu Division Youths (CIDY).
The chartered accountant, who was one of the discussants at the session, also called for change of attitudes on the part of the people who are placing unnecessary demands on the council administrators.
“The issues confronting local administration in Nigeria are systemic and attitudinal. Systemic in the sense that some statues and the constitution are conflicting which people must know”, Mr Lasisis said.
“First, if you look at section 7(1) of the 1999 constitution, it states that the local government system is, hereby, guaranteed under this constitution through a democratically elected local council but if you go to Section 8 sub section 8, it says the system, structure, function and the finance of local government shall be determined by Assembly.
“These are conflicting information in that same constitution.
“What we are saying in essence is that Local government deserves autonomy and there will be nothing that they can do without autonomy in the area of administration, political and physical.
“On the attitude, we need to address the issue of good governance. This is about the people and those in government. If we don’t address this, we will just be moving up and down”.
He charged council administrators to administer with openness, integrity and accountability.
“Going forward, I want to encourage the chairmen to embrace openness, Integrity and accountability in their administration of the local government in Ikorodu division”, he charged.
Reacting to the CIDY’s Coordinator’s opening address, the former Chairman of the IDRDG asked:
“Why are the citizens not having a constructive engagement with the chairmen? Why did the citizens refuse to perform their Civic right during election? And, why are the citizens not paying their taxes?”, he asked.
He advised that people should be more involved in subsequent editions of the session because they are important to the discourse.
“For future purpose, you should not limit this kind of conversation to the chairmen alone. The citizens too are very important in this gathering” he said.
“In setting your agenda, I will encourage you to include the renaissance and the restructuring of the minds of the mass of our people because the citizens don’t understand the meaning of local government at all.
“You can imagine a citizen going to the chairman’s house early hours of the day to complain that their soak – away got broken and wanted the chairman to fix it. That’s not part of the local government work. That means we need to do a kind of re-orientation for them. Perhaps, we just put unnecessary pressure on the local government”.
He commended the CIDY initiative and called for its sustenance.
“This is highly commendable and I believe that this programme should be sustained. It’s my privilege to be invited to this great conversation and interrogation”, he said.
