i know people wey work at LG. he no dey go work. just dey collect salary

alizma:
This is nonsense coming from him, so we should just assume that the entire population is at the mercy of the governor's right?
He should wait and see, a governor's interest for reelection can also be frustrated by a group of local government chairmen if he thinks he is the alpha and Omega.

Fayose was just being mischievous. When he came back from Europe around year 2000 to start "watering ground" for his political ambition, he met fully functional and autonomous local govetnment structure on ground.

Obasanjo myopically destroyed that structure for a specific goal of gaining the support of state governors. Fayose himself did not follow that script, he opposed Obasanjo's ambition.

biaframaster200:
But in the time past most especially in the 90's Chairman of local government is totally autonomous of any State governors ....but politicians has made it a governor extended Arms....

This is not what is obtainable in the developed countries....Nigeria really need restructuring ....without optimal functioning of Local government, not grass root growth .....

What a pity

Shikena:

CORRECTION: Many government workers - Federal, State, LG.

WRONG!
Be specific whatever you claim.
Most LG workers dont go to work!

fergie001:
The former Ekiti State Governor was in a one-on-one interview on ChannelsTV


- Peter Ayodele Fayose

that’s a lie if INEC conduct the LG election

frog12:
i know people wey work at LG. he no dey go work. just dey collect salary

So how is that related to the issue on ground, are there no people collecting salary at the state level without working?

lexy2014:


local government elections are conducted by state electoral commissions which are under state governors. that means result of elections are determined by state governors even before the election proper

That is because you believe that all elections results are rigged

Sermwell:

Someone who is far more experienced than you in politics is telling you something and you're here arguing rubbish!
Without even being told, don't you know that move is trash?
A whole former governor is telling you something and you have the guts to doubt?

The masses are indeed gullible and stupid

A whole former governor is indirectly telling you that you are a slave and you think he is making a reasonable point. No wonder nothing is changing, when the majority of the youths celebrate a man who look at them face to face and tell them to embrace their position as slaves, nothing change in such place.
A whole Adams Oshiomhole was messed up by plot orchestrated by people at his local area and someone is telling you that a governor is alpha of electoral process at the Local level and you are celebrating him. If his stand is absolutely the position of things, why are the governors having issues with the judgement of the supreme court?

alizma:

That is because you believe that all elections results are rigged

what is the relationship between my belief and the issues I raised?

can you kindly provide any information that negates the comment I made that you responded to?

Sir, it will work. The influence of Governors are too much in Nigeria. Governor will choose who will be LGA chairman, Governor will choose who will be in the House of Assembly, Governor will choose those who will represent his state in the National assembly and Governor will indirectly choose the president of our country. This is not good for our democracy. Let their power reduce by decentralizing it to LGA chairmen.

Demurray:

You are right but if the REC conduct the election, sope Otis lo. .
We had experience it in our local government before, in which the incumbent chairman refused to perform and the commuter decided to vote him out as he's contesting for the second term.
On the election day, we voted for another candidate and won when we added results of the wards together even squarely, but when the result were announced by the REC it was the incumbent that won , the governor called him and gave him brown envelope to shut up or else.....
That's how it was swept under the carpet

You mean the guy the people voted sold the mandate for money?
What would have happened if he refused or had gone to the court?

Odidigboigbo:
That is a long way to go. The Constitution needs to be amended first. Provided the constitution empowers the House of Assembly to oversee the Local government, the governors will always have their way through the Assemblies.

If this is in the constitution, then it should be amended immediately. Otherwise, there's still no true LG Autonomy

Melagros:
COMRADES, anyone who thinks that the so-called local government autonomy will function effectively, you are dreaming
Because the governors will definitely plant their stooges in every local government area who will be sending them returns. So the joint account will still be functional through the backdoor

sure example delta did local government election but nobody see polling booth to vote but see scores written for PDP and APC u go laugh tire

That was the same issue I raised when the Supreme Court made the judgement. The Supreme Court just compounded the whole issue because if today an election is conducted into Local Government council, no single opposition will win election. The governor will just hand over names of those to announce and before the final collation of results, you may just hear the results had been announced.
Until the constitution is tinker with and the conduct of the council election is done by the INEC before we can averagely say the local government is autonomous.
One very big issue again, the Supreme Court had said in the past that the state governor has the right to replicate the LGAs, which gave birth to LCDAs in many states of the federation. If the governor have the sole right to replicate the LGA, any local government area not in the good book of the governor, the governor will just wake up one day and replicate it and turn it to mushroom LG.
Just I had always say, if the judiciary doesn't kill this country, it will remain small because their ruling is somewhat contradictory. Your ruling empower governor to manage the affairs of the local government areas and can conduct election for them but your another ruling say you grant local government financial autonomy. Why can't we have holistic provisions that will make truly the Local Government Areas the third tier of government in the constitution than subjecting the local government to half baked system.

Cmanforall:


You mean the guy the people voted sold the mandate for money?
What would have happened if he refused or had gone to the court?

Yeah but he didn't sell it, he was silenced with the money since he has no money to claimed his victory in the court also the state judiciary are the one to judge the case, which are already in the pockets of the state governor

Cmanforall:



If this is in the constitution, then it should be amended immediately. Otherwise, there's still no true LG Autonomy

Yes it is, the House of Assembly has oversight function on the LG. Sometime ago, one LG Chairman of my LGA was being disloyal to the then governor and paying allegiance to his godfather that was having issues with the governor. The governor got him suspended through the House of Assembly until his tenor elapsed.

alizma:
This is nonsense coming from him, so we should just assume that the entire population is at the mercy of the governor's right?
He should wait and see, a governor's interest for reelection can also be frustrated by a group of local government chairmen if he thinks he is the alpha and Omega.

Some of you doesn't know what is on ground.
Firstly, the supreme court have even spoilt the show. The same supreme court was the one that says the governor has the right to replicate the LGA. Meaning the governor can just wake up one day and split any LGA not dancing to his turn. That was the judgement that gave Lagos state the privilege to have LCDAs and since then, many states had created their own LCDAs.
Remember our constitution also empowered each state to conduct local government election under the purview of the state governor. Hence, the governor is still in control of who and who is to be chairman of any LGA. All he needed doing, as they have been doing, is to hand over names of those he want to SIEC chairman for announcement.
Till today, the judgement of the supreme court has not legal backing because no place in the constitution that says local government areas should maintain financial account, instead the constitution says joint consolidated account.
Now, the constitution has to be amended to capture such clause but if not, it would still raise a dust in the future.
The bigger question now, would the state governors not influence the state assembly not to pass such clause into law? Serious issue that may affect us in the future.

IfnobeGod20:
■ Some of you doesn't know what is on ground.
Firstly, the supreme court have even spoilt the show. The same supreme court was the one that says the governor has the right to replicate the LGA. Meaning the governor can just wake up one day and split any LGA not dancing to his turn. That was the judgement that gave Lagos state the privilege to have LCDAs and since then, many states had created their own LCDAs. Remember our constitution also empowered each state to conduct local government election under the purview of the state governor. Hence, the governor is still in control of who and who is to be chairman of any LGA. All he needed doing, as they have been doing, is to hand over names of those he want to SIEC chairman for announcement.
■ Till today, the judgement of the supreme court has not legal backing because no place in the constitution that says local government areas should maintain financial account, instead the constitution says joint consolidated account.
■ Now, the constitution has to be amended to capture such clause but if not, it would still raise a dust in the future.
The bigger question now, would the state governors not influence the state assembly not to pass such clause into law? Serious issue that may affect us in the future.

The LCDAs are state-level creations and are rightly not recognized by the Federal Government or the Constitution.

2. I believe this is very wrong! In the same way, the Constitution does not expressly tell the FG and individual States about setting up accounts for the handling of its defined affairs, I believe it equally does not need to explicitly indicate permissions for the creation of accounts at the individual LG level.

3. No, it does not!

IfnobeGod20:
■ That was the same issue I raised when the Supreme Court made the judgement. The Supreme Court just compounded the whole issue because if today an election is conducted into Local Government council, no single opposition will win election. The governor will just hand over names of those to announce and before the final collation of results, you may just hear the results had been announced.
■ Until the constitution is tinker with and the conduct of the council election is done by the INEC before we can averagely say the local government is autonomous.
■ One very big issue again, the Supreme Court had said in the past that the state governor has the right to replicate the LGAs, which gave birth to LCDAs in many states of the federation. If the governor have the sole right to replicate the LGA, any local government area not in the good book of the governor, the governor will just wake up one day and replicate it and turn it to mushroom LG.
■ Just I had always say, if the judiciary doesn't kill this country, it will remain small because their ruling is somewhat contradictory. Your ruling empower governor to manage the affairs of the local government areas and can conduct election for them but your another ruling say you grant local government financial autonomy. Why can't we have holistic provisions that will make truly the Local Government Areas the third tier of government in the constitution than subjecting the local government to half baked system.

1. What you highlighted is a problem of corruption in the system. The LG Chairmen are elected officials. So, these acts by the governors are criminal offenses, not issues that the Supreme court should be bothered with.

2. The Constitution isn't the problem here either. The refusal by those in charge of things to enforce the Law is the problem. And it is made worse by the almost removed approach of the Nigerian people in their own government. They are meant to be sitting in the driver's seat but have been taking a backseat approach for the last 25 years. How can anything go right when the designated driver(the people) refuses to take the wheel?

3. LCDAs are no problems at all because as far as the Constitution is concerned, they only exist in the minds of your Governors. Sections 7 and 8 of the Constitution allow for the creation of LGs but not LCDAs so LCDAs only exist at the state level and have no impact on the number of LGs recognized by the Constitution.


4. Wrong! Governors were never empowered either by the Constitution or the recent ruling to rule or control the LGs. What these governors have done up until now has been against the Law - Section 162, subsections 4, 5, 6, 7. and 8. But yes, the current ruling however contradicts the Constitution in that it now grants power over the LGs to the FG which is against the Constitution.

Kobojunkie:
The LCDAs are state-level creations and are rightly not recognized by the Federal Government or the Constitution.

2. I believe this is very wrong! In the same way, the Constitution does not expressly tell the FG and individual States about setting up accounts for the handling of its defined affairs, I believe it equally does not need to explicitly indicate permissions for the creation of accounts at the individual LG level.

3. No, it does not!

I can't just remember the section now that talked about consolidated joint account for local government and state allocation. The constitution is only particular about federal allocation account where it would be disburse to. The constitution doesn't have a special disbursement for local government council account and that is why till date the LCDAs have not received a dime from the FG because it is not statutorily captured in the constitution.

IfnobeGod20:
■ I can't just remember the section now that talked about consolidated joint account for local government and state allocation.
■ The constitution is only particular about federal allocation account where it would be disburse to.
■ The constitution doesn't have a special disbursement for local government council account and that is why till date the LCDAs have not received a dime from the FG because it is not statutorily captured in the constitution.

I believe you mean Section 162 where instead the State Governors are to maintain an account called "State Joint Local Government Account".

(6) Each State shall maintain a special account to be called "State Joint Local Government Account" into which shall be paid all allocations to the Local Government Councils of the State from the Federation Account and from the Government of the State.
More: https://jurist.ng/constitution/sec-162

● State Governors are only permitted to maintain the account's existence and also post IGR to be distributed to the LGs into that account.
● State Governors are not empowered by that section of the Law to dip into the account for any reason. Nor are they authorized to take control of the affairs of the LGs by way of that account or for any other reason.
● LGs are meant to report or answer only to the National House of Assembly and the State House of Assembly. Those are the only two sectors of Government that have control or power over the LGs.

3. Those things were created by the State Governors, and so cannot receive anything from the FG for any purpose. The Constitution only recognizes LGs.

Kobojunkie:
1. What you highlighted is a problem of corruption in the system. The LG Chairmen are elected officials. So, these acts by the governors are criminal offenses, not issues that the Supreme court should be bothered with.

2. The Constitution isn't the problem here either. The refusal by those in charge of things to enforce the Law is the problem. And it is made worse by the almost removed approach of the Nigerian people in their own government. They are meant to be sitting in the driver's seat but have been taking a backseat approach for the last 25 years. How can anything go right when the designated driver(the people) refuses to take the wheel?

3. LCDAs are no problems at all because as far as the Constitution is concerned, they only exist in the minds of your Governors. Sections 7 and 8 of the Constitution allow for the creation of LGs but not LCDAs so LCDAs only exist at the state level and have no impact on the number of LGs recognized by the Constitution.


4. Wrong! Governors were never empowered either by the Constitution or the recent ruling to rule or control the LGs. What these governors have done up until now has been against the Law - Section 162, subsections 4, 5, 6, 7. and 8. But yes, the current ruling however contradicts the Constitution in that it now grants power over the LGs to the FG which is against the Constitution.

a
The system of these local government councils can only be holistic and be third tier of government if the approach used in conducting the affairs of the federal and state is adopted for its affairs.

Look at it this way. The FG have its own National Assembly. The SG have its own State House Assembly but the local government areas are at the mercy of the State House Assembly, as they formulate the laws that govern them and most of the time, the governor have overbearing influence on the State House Assembly. Any chairman not in the good book of the governor, the State House Assembly always advise the state governor to sack such chairman with flimsy excuse.
Well, the least is yet to be heard about this local government autonomy. The future is still very much pregnant on it. Let us keep tab for it.

IfnobeGod20:
■ The system of these local government councils can only be holistic and be third tier of government if the approach used in conducting the affairs of the federal and state is adopted for its affairs.
■ Look at it this way. The FG have its own National Assembly. The SG have its own State House Assembly but the local government areas are at the mercy of the State House Assembly, as they formulate the laws that govern them and most of the time, the governor have overbearing influence on the State House Assembly. Any chairman not in the good book of the governor, the State House Assembly always advise the state governor to sack such chairman with flimsy excuse.
■ Well, the least is yet to be heard about this local government autonomy. The future is still very much pregnant on it. Let us keep tab for it.

1. What do you mean by this?

2. Where do you get the idea that the Governor has power by way of the Constitution to fire an officer(LGA councilman) elected by the people of the Local Government though? I am yet to come up with any of that in the Constitution.

3. Nigerians should demand a going back to respecting the Constitution in this. These Governors violated the Constitution and many of them seem to think they can do so with impunity because the Nigerian people are generally ignorant of the Law of the Land. Seyi Makinde and all the others like him ought to be removed from office and made to answer for the crimes they committed against their people in depriving them of development at the local government level by their criminal actions.

Odidigboigbo:
Yes it is, the House of Assembly has oversight function on the LG. Sometime ago, one LG Chairman of my LGA was being disloyal to the then governor and paying allegiance to his godfather that was having issues with the governor. The governor got him suspended through the House of Assembly until his tenor elapsed.

Nigerian constitution truly needs to be revised

Cmanforall:
■ Nigerian constitution truly needs to be revised

The Constitution is not the problem; the inaction of the people is and no amount of changes you make to the law can resolve that.

Odidigboigbo:
■ Yes it is, the House of Assembly has oversight function on the LG. Sometime ago, one LG Chairman of my LGA was being disloyal to the then governor and paying allegiance to his godfather that was having issues with the governor. The governor got him suspended through the House of Assembly until his tenor elapsed.

But what you described is a problem created by corruption in the system. And the people, aware of this, could have easily called for the removal of the implicated members of the House of Assembly members —made an example of them — to avoid a repeat of any such.

Democracy is government for the people by the people meaning that the ones in the driving seat able to make sure things work are the people. When people refuse to sit in the driver's seat, the system cannot work at all. That is the case in Nigeria.

oluwaseyi0:
best is to merge their election with the general election

Simple!

IfnobeGod20:
That was the same issue I raised when the Supreme Court made the judgement. The Supreme Court just compounded the whole issue because if today an election is conducted into Local Government council, no single opposition will win election. The governor will just hand over names of those to announce and before the final collation of results, you may just hear the results had been announced.
Until the constitution is tinker with and the conduct of the council election is done by the INEC before we can averagely say the local government is autonomous.
One very big issue again, the Supreme Court had said in the past that the state governor has the right to replicate the LGAs, which gave birth to LCDAs in many states of the federation. If the governor have the sole right to replicate the LGA, any local government area not in the good book of the governor, the governor will just wake up one day and replicate it and turn it to mushroom LG.
Just I had always say, if the judiciary doesn't kill this country, it will remain small because their ruling is somewhat contradictory. Your ruling empower governor to manage the affairs of the local government areas and can conduct election for them but your another ruling say you grant local government financial autonomy. Why can't we have holistic provisions that will make truly the Local Government Areas the third tier of government in the constitution than subjecting the local government to half baked system.

There has always been financial autonomy in the constitution. What the court just did is to place emphasis on it.

bixton:
■ There has always been financial autonomy in the constitution. What the court just did is to place emphasis on it.

It emphasized it right before it then turned it all on its head by granting FG direct access to all 774 LGs.

fergie001:
The former Ekiti State Governor was in a one-on-one interview on ChannelsTV


- Peter Ayodele Fayose

this clueless fraudster that called himself ex governor have started blabbing here on the media channel. LG Autonomy under Tinubu government will work and takes effect in this month of July. They should keep on deceiving themselves here.

Kobojunkie:
1. What do you mean by this?

2. Where do you get the idea that the Governor has power by way of the Constitution to fire an officer(LGA councilman) elected by the people of the Local Government though? I am yet to come up with any of that in the Constitution.

3. Nigerians should demand a going back to respecting the Constitution in this. These Governors violated the Constitution and many of them seem to think they can do so with impunity because the Nigerian people are generally ignorant of the Law of the Land. Seyi Makinde and all the others like him ought to be removed from office and made to answer for the crimes they committed against their people in depriving them of development at the local government level by their criminal actions.

It seems you don't know what is going on in this country. The state assembly regulate the activities of the local government areas. Anytime any of the chairmen have issue with the governor, the governor used the instrumentality of the State House Assembly to invite the chairman to the House Committee on local government affairs and before you know it, the same House Assembly will recommend the removal of the said chairman.
All this half autonomy will not give us the desired result until the constitution truly separate the local government areas away from the state hand and make it truly third tier of government. Let their counselors form their own House Assembly and formulate laws for them and control the local council oversight. If the governor have a bit of control of it, it would not work.

bixton:




There has always been financial autonomy in the constitution. What the court just did is to place emphasis on it.

The local council have no financial autonomy because their allocation is sent into a state joint account manage and control by the state governor. The governor only give whatever he likes to each local council.

IfnobeGod20:
■ It seems you don't know what is going on in this country. The state assembly regulate the activities of the local government areas. Anytime any of the chairmen have issue with the governor, the governor used the instrumentality of the State House Assembly to invite the chairman to the House Committee on local government affairs and before you know it, the same House Assembly will recommend the removal of the said chairman.
■ All this half autonomy will not give us the desired result until the constitution truly separate the local government areas away from the state hand and make it truly third tier of government. Let their counselors form their own House Assembly and formulate laws for them and control the local council oversight. If the governor have a bit of control of it, it would not work.

1. Oh, I know what is going on in the country. My concern was that your previous statement was not in fact accurate. It is the House of Assembly that has the power to remove an elected LG official, not the Governor at all since the Constitution is clear that the Governor has no power or control over the LGs, who are elected officials. The abuse of power by the Senators who are paid by the Governors is an entirely different issue.

2. There are no half-autonomies. The system defined in the Constitution almost mirrors what we have here in the United States where the three tiers of government function in pretty much the same way. Yes, there is rampant abuse of power and crime in the Nigerian situation and this is to be expected. Why? Because the drivers in a democracy, the Nigerian people, are nowhere to be found in the driver's seat. They seem to have taken a backseat to their democratic system and that cannot work at all since democracy is a system of Government for the people by the people.