The National Assembly has passed a bill granting full financial and administrative autonomy to local governments.
Each local government now has the responsibility to maintain and create its own special account to be called Local Government Allocation Account.
The bill mandates each state to pay local government councils within its jurisdiction, such proportion of its internally generated revenue on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly.
What you should know
The bill was passed following a vote on the report of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bills, 2022 at Tuesday’s plenary.
The bill was voted by the Majority of both chambers during the session.
The bill seeks to amend the Constitution to repeal the state joint local government account and provide for a special account where all allocations due to the local governments’ councils, from the federation account and state government, shall be paid.
The bill is entitled: ‘Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Abrogate the State Joint Local Government Account and Provide for a Special Account into which shall be paid all Allocations due to Local Government Councils from the Federation Account and from the Government of the State; and for Related Matters’
The bill which was sponsored by Rep. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha (PDP-Abia) is seeking to alter section 162 of the 1999 constitution which provides for the State Joint Local Government Account into which all revenues accruing to the local governments from the federal and state governments are paid.
While leading the debate in November 2016, Mrs Onyejeocha argued that unless the joint account was abolished, the local government cannot be strengthened as a tier of government.
She said state governments had capitalised on the joint account to exploit councils depriving them of funds.
“The practice of true federalism is lacking in Nigeria, especially at the local government level. Some state governments deprive their local governments of principal source of their revenues.
“Unless more stable internal source of revenue are exploited, and state-local government joint account abolished, the objective of strengthening local governments relationship with state and federal governments will remain a mirage,’’ Mrs Onyejeocha said in 2016.
