By CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

INSTEAD of scrapping the local councils as a federating unit as recommended by a National Conference Committee, the councils should be better funded and granted economic and political autonomy because the councils are the closest tier to the people.

This was the consensus of former Finance and Economic Planning Minister, Dr Kalu Idika Kalu; Vice Chancellor of Covenant University, Professor Charles Korede Ayo; Mr. Victor Ukut and other speakers at a lecture in Lagos, yesterday.

Held at Eko Hotel and Suites, the lecture, with the theme Sustaining Momentum for Social Service Delivery in Good Governance, was organised by the Centre for Democratic Governance in Africa, CDGA.

Wondering why the confab committee would recommend removing the councils as a federating unit, Kalu, who chaired the event, said: “Development takes place at the grassroots, which is a reason we must upgrade the local governments. Democracy encompasses grassroots consultations.

“Democracy is a form of interaction with the grassroots people to know their needs and make provision for them.”

Stressing the need for good governance, which he said is an ingredient of democracy, he said: “Good governance entails what I call community laws, accountability, freedom of choice of candidates in an open and competitive politics, which make for provision for how to come into public office and leave.”

He decried the situation where how people come into governance are not predictable, saying “some governors in the country have now developed the habit of rushing or scheming to go to the Senate at all cost after their tenure.”

In a lecture entitled Local Government Autonomy Under the 1999 Constitution: The Journey So Far Under Nigerian Democratic Experience, a legal practitioner, Victor Ukut, said contrary to the provisions of Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution, which provides for the Local Government System in Nigeria, governors and the various state legislatures have violated the political and economic autonomy of the councils with impunity.

He cited the examples of Lagos, Kano, Adamawa and Abia states among others, as states that have not only taken over the responsibilities of the councils, but have also replaced democratically elected council officials with sole administrators and care-taker committees, which he argued amounted to “gross violation of the 1999 Constitution.”

Professor Ayo, who was represented by Dr Olawande Daramola, in his lecture entitled e-Governance: How Technology Can Drive Socio-Economic Development at the Grassroots, also stressed the need to empower the councils financially.

He flayed a situation where state governments do not only pilfer allocation to councils, but also deprive them of sources of internally generated revenues.