FG Urged To Grant LGs Autonomy

By Garry Ochigbo

The Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs has restated commitment towards tackling the numerous challenges facing Local Government administration for national development.

The Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Zephaniah Jisalo made the call at the Annual conference of functionaries and key actors in local government administration.

Mr Jisalo said the conference was aimed at looking into the numerous challenges confronting the local government administration including low budgetary allocation among others.

According to Jisalo, various intervention programmes and reforms were underway towards boosting and sustaining the activities of local government administration for better service delivery to people at the grassroots.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Ibiene Roberts said the conference is targeted towards identifying and addressing institutional challenges that hampered effective functioning of local governments ranging from inadequate funding, corruption and political interference.

She added that the local government is the closest to the people with direct impact on lives as the core foundation in which the prosperity of any nation is built.

In a remark, Chairman House Committee on Special Duties, Tukura Ibrahim said local governments across the federation have been starved due to political interference stopping, local government administrators from making the right decisions due to poor funding.

He stated that the House of Representatives is putting measures in place to abolish the joint account between the states and local governments for total autonomy that would enhance development.

Highlight of the event was the presentation of a book titled: “The journey so far” marking some achievements of the minister in his first 100days in office.

The Theme of the conference was “The trajectory of local government administration in Nigeria and the institutional challenges”.

Edited By Grace Namiji