The Citizens Centre for Integrated Development and Social Rights (CCIDESOR) has called for collective efforts of stakeholders and Nigerians to rescue the local government system from it present comatose state.
Executive Director of CCIDESOR, Emeka Ononamadu, made the call in a media briefing on Wednesday in Enugu.
Ononamadu noted that the root cause of this failure lies in the absence of true financial, administrative, and political autonomy for local governments as evidenced from CCIDESOR’s and Situationroom field monitoring of capital projects analysis across selected local governments in the South-East.
He said that the analysis revealed that allocated funds are not translating into visible development, while core constitutional responsibilities are neglected.
The executive director called for urgent constitutional reforms, particularly in the amendment to Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution, to guarantee full autonomy for local governments and establish a citizen-driven accountability framework.
He noted that current delay in local government autonomy is not a neutral decision, as it actively sustains a system that enables: fraud, waste, abuse, poverty and underdevelopment.
Ononamadu, however, said that conversely, timely constitutional reforms would block major leakages of public funds, strengthen accountability systems and deliver measurable development outcomes at the grassroots.
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He called on President Bola Tinubu to drive structural and constitutional reforms and champion the urgent amendment to Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution to abolish the state joint local government account and guarantee direct allocation to local governments.
“The president should provide executive backing; issue clear policy directives supporting local government autonomy and zero tolerance for state interference in local government funds and mobilise political consensus on the matter among others,” he said.
Ononamadu urged the National Assembly to fast-track constitutional amendment to Section 162 and other relevant provisions affecting local government autonomy and legislate transparency mechanisms.
He urged state governments to transit from control to support of local governments, immediately cease diversion or control of local government funds and allow elected local government officials to operate independently without intimidation or undue influence.
Ononamadu called on the media to drive transparency and public awareness through investigative reporting, expose misuse, diversion, and underperformance in local government fund utilization and educate citizens on local government budgets, allocations, and their rights to accountability.
