By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
Bauchi State Government has expressed its readiness to fully implement the Supreme Court judgement granting autonomy to LGAs in the state.
The declaration was made on Tuesday after a Stakeholders consultative meeting held at the Banquet Hall of the Government presided over by the State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir alongside his Deputy, Rt Hon Auwal Jatau and the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Rt Hon Abubakar Y Suleiman.
Briefing Journalists at the end of the meeting, Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Aminu Hammayo stated that the State Government will soon present two Executive Bills to the State House of Assembly on how to go about the whole issue.
According to him, “Over the last Six to Seven months, the most topical issue in Nigeria was the issue of the autonomy of the LGAs and this came up as the result of the Supreme Court judgement granting autonomy to LGAs.
“A lot of discussions have gone around it and the Governor felt the necessity for us as a State to look at issues around LGCs autonomy in order to come up with a framework and main thing that will guide us in the implementation of the local government autonomy,” he added
The SSG further stated that,”Consequently, a roundtable meeting of stakeholders was convened which held throughout the day with Chairpersons of the LGCs in attendance. We had a number of paper presentations dwelling around LG administration, revenue generation and sharing formula, current structure and other relevant issues.”
Aminu Hammayo added that there were various inputs and debates on the presentations leading to the formulation of two bills that will be sent to the House of Assembly to define how best to run local government administration in Bauchi state.
According to him, “Two draft bills were actually prepared and presented by the Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice. They are Local Government Administration Bill 2925 and a Law for State to implement local government autonomy.”
He stated that the two bills were discussed and scrutinised by the stakeholders at the meeting, reactions were elicited and noted and taken note of in order to accommodate all views and opinions that will lead to having a perfect legislation.
The SSG assured that the bills will be presented to the State House of Assembly for legislative purposes and passage into law in line with the Supreme Court judgement granting autonomy to LGAs in the country.
Aminu Hammayo assured that the State Government is doing everything possible to ensure that there are no hitches in the implementation of the autonomy adding that it will be a smooth administration.