LG Autonomy: Senate Awaits S’Court Verdict, May Review Existing Laws

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Senate  has said it would await the decision of the Supreme Court on the controversial issue of local government autonomy before considering a review of the existing laws on the matter.

Senate spokesperson, Adeyemi Adaramodu, explained this in an interview with journalists in Abuja, yesterday.

He revealed that the Senate was currently constrained and was not in a position to present an opinion until the Supreme Court makes a pronouncement

Adaramodu, however,  noted that there was a time in the nation’s history when local governments were largely autonomous but a time came when government decided otherwise.

He noted that some people have raised concerns about the revenue allocation formula via-a-vis the issue of equity among other issues.

Adaramodu said: “We might not be able to say much about it (LG authonomy) but then, we are talking about distributing funds to local governments.

“There are indices that inform the distribution of funds to local governments. Equality, land mass, social indices. So, when we talk about one of seven of the schools in Akure, that’s social indices. That is where they indicate how many hospitals.

“How many dispensaries? How many primary schools? How many junior secondary schools? Then population.

“So they distribute based on that. So, definitely there’s a local government that has only one primary school, and there’s another one that has 37 primary schools that are not going to get the same thing because of that formula. So just for education.

“But for local government autonomy, we’ll not discuss further until the Supreme Court rules accordingly.

“When the Supreme Court rules, then the National Assembly will know where to take it from , whatever the ruling is.”