Remove LGs From Constitution – Afenifere

By Ayodele Oni

The Pan Yoruba Socio-political Group, Afenifere under the leadership of Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has advocated  for a two tier system of Government for Nigeria.

The Afenifere factional group said the 774 local governments should be removed from the 1999 constitution as amended to enable State governments operate the third tier of the government themselves.

The Yoruba group, which made the call in a Communique issued at the end of the National Caucus of Afenifere held at the Lagos Residence of the Leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, on Tuesday, said President Bola Tinubu has not shown commitment to restructuring the country since he assumed office last year.

Afenifere, in the communique signed by the group’s National Publicity Secretary, Prince Justice Faloye, faulted the suit instituted by the federal government against the 36 states at the Supreme Court on the local government autonomy as a mere distraction which would not yield positive result without amending certain sections of the 1999 Constitution.

“Afenifere insists that the only solution to this staggering injustice is to delete the list of Local Governments in the constitution and allow states to create their Local Councils as recommended by the 2014 National

Conference and the 2018 El-Rufai Committee on Federalism, as part of the holistic restructuring of the Nigerian Federation.

“That without prejudice to the suit pending at the Supreme Court, Afenifere views the position of the Federal on Local Government autonomy as diversionary, hypocritical and playing to the gallery without deep reflection on its implications for a true federal Nigeria.

“It is a clear demonstration of lack of political will to restructure the Nigerian Federation.

“That the suit rather diminishes President Tinubu’s claims on federalism and casts him in the image of his predecessors, who erroneously perceived the President or the Federal Government as a leviathan at whose feet the federating states must capitulate.

“Afenifere recalled that by letter Pres/87 dated 10th April 2004 to the Minister of Finance titled ‘Local Government Elections and Allocation of Funds from the Federation Account to LGAs’ President Obasanjo wrote interalia: ‘Available information indicates that some States namely Ebonyi, Katsina, Lagos, Nasarawa and Niger conducted the last Local Government election in the new Local Government Areas created by their respective State Assemblies’

“As the National Assembly is yet to make the necessary consequential provisions in respect of any of the newly created Local Government Areas in the country, conducting election into or funding any of them from the Federation Account would clearly be a violation of the Constitution.

“Consequently, no allocation from the Federation Account should henceforth be released to the Local Government Councils of the above-mentioned.”