States Should Create Local Governments For Equity – Afenifere

The Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, has called for an amendment to the country’s Constitution to allow states to create local governments.

Naija News reports that the Secretary General of the group, Sola Ebiseni, said the current imbalance in the number of local governments across the country must be addressed.

In an interview with Arise News on Wednesday, the Afenifere chieftain noted that local governments only serve as a means for states to get huge allocations from the federation account.

“If you look at the equity of local government creation in Nigeria, you will marvel. So rather than talk just autonomy, as if there is nothing wrong with the way the local governments itself have been allocated among the states, so much that it has become a means of getting money from the federation account.

“If you take some states, for instance, if you go to the South, I mean, if you go to the South-South, you pick Akwa Ibom, has 31 local governments. River State, in both population and size, is bigger than Akwa Ibom. It has 23. If you come to the southwest, the Ondo State has 18. It’s bigger in size and population than Osun. Osun has 30. If you pick Jigawa, 27, you pick Kano, 44, you pick Kassina, 34, making 105. It’s more than the entirety of the local government in South East, which is just 95.

“So if this local government, I mean, you say Bayelsa is an oil-producing state. Bayelsa has eight local governments. Whatever comes to Bayelsa from the derivation account, right, and if you juxtapose that with a state that has about 30 local governments, and you calculate it maybe on the basis of 500 million naira per local government, whatever you think Bayelsa will have gotten or generated from the derivation from being an oil-producing state, is rubbished by the number of local governments that some other states have without making any contribution.

“So you need to really go into the equity. That is why we believe that it is not for the federal government to create local government. It is for the states to create local government. So our position is that the local government, for instance, as it is in the Constitution today, should be delisted.

“Let the state create as many local government as it has the capacity to manage. But as it is now, for instance, look at what is happening with respect to VAT. Those who have advantage with respect to the number of local governments they have deriving revenue from the federation account, immediately now you say, let VAT come by way of derivation. Then it was an issue.

“And that is why today you see the south-south now say, the same formula you use for allocation of VAT, use it for oil and see where Nigeria stands. There’s a lot of inequities in the system,” he said.

True Federalism

Afenifere stated that all regions of the country have the necessary resources to develop at their own pace and contribute to the national economy as they did in the First Republic.

“This is what Afenifere discussed. And that is why Afenifere insists on true federalism as the means, the way by which the Nigerian states can be equitably, effectively, and fairly governed

“True federalism. Because that is what it is. You know, you’re talking about the autonomy of the constituent states to manage their own affairs. And there is no part of Nigeria that is poor.

“In the First Republic, from the Eastern state, the Eastern region, to the Western region, to the Northern region, there was no one that lagged behind. It is only because, I mean, everybody is relying on oil now,” he added.