National Assembly okays autonomy for Local Governments
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| Senate President, David Mark |
The National Assembly on Tuesday approved
financial and administrative autonomy for all the 774 local government
authorities in Nigeria by amending section 124 of the 1999 Constitution.
The
section provides a consequential provision for making the councils a
full third-tier government without undue interference from the state
governments.
The ammendment was one of
the 22 others approved by the House of Representatives last week and
ratified by the Senate on Tuesday.
Both
chambers of the National Assembly had through a conference committee
harmonised versions of the amendments to the constitution they carried
out last month.
By the development, the National Assembly has ratified all the 23 clauses and sections that had been ammended by both chambers.
The
newly ammended document which would be sent to the state Houses of
Assembly for consideration, also approved the creation of the Office of
Auditor – General of the Local Government as well as the State
Local
Government Service Commission.
The
section also deleted the State Independent Electoral Commission from the
constitution thereby vesting the powers to conduct council elections on
only the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The
National Assembly also made provisions for Independent candidacy in
future elections by ammending sections 65 and 106 of the constitution.
It
however retained the immunity clause in the constitution for the
President and governors which the House had earlier removed.
But
it conferred immunity on the lawmakers in respect of words spoken or
written in the exercise of their legislative duties through amendment to
section four. Section 9 of the constitution was also amended by
removing the need for Presidential assent in constitution alteration.
The
new amendment also makes it mandatory for the President to deliver a
State-of-the Nation address to a joint meeting of the National Assembly
once a year as contained in section 67.
The
INEC, by the ammendment, can now de-register political parties for non
-fulfillment of certain conditions like breach of registration
requirements and failure to secure or win either a presidential,
governorship, council chairmanship or a seat in the National Assembly or
state assembly.
Another striking
feature of the amendment is section 124 which abolishes SIECs and
creates the office of the Auditor -General of the Local Government as
well as the State Local Government Service Commission.
For
the purpose of accountability and efficient service delivery, Section
81 was ammended. The section provides for the funding of the Office of
the Auditor-General of the Federation, Office of the Attorney-General of
the Federation, national security agencies, the Nigeria Police Force,
the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission directly from the
Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.
The
powers of the Federal Government to impose a minimum wage of all
workers on state governments was removed from the exclusive list and
moved to the concurrent list.
Also
removed from the exclusive list are Pensions, Railways, and Stamp
Duties, Arbitration, Environment, Health, Housing, Road Safety, Youths,
Land and Agriculture.
Exclusive jurisdiction was also conferred on the Federal High Court for trial of election offences.
The
National Assembly also provides that a court or tribunal shall not
stay any proceedings on account of any interlocutors appeal; and that
where a “force majeure occurs, the period shall not be counted in the
computation of the 180 days for the purpose of determining election
petitions.
Sections 174 and 211 were
also amended to establish the Office of the Attorney – General of the
Federation and Attorney – General of a state respectively as distinct
from Minister of Justice and Commissioner for Justice.
Section
45 was similarly altered to provide for the establishment of the
National Assembly Service Commission and State House of Assembly Service
Commission.
However the 23 amendments
will have to be approved by two-thirds of the state Houses of Assembly
before they can become operational.
The
Senate President, David Mark, has therefore directed that the report
should be forwarded to all the 36 states of the federation immediately.
But
after the Senate adopted the report, its Chairman on Rules and
Business, Senator Ita Enang, kicked against the process of the
adoption.
According to Enang, since
the Senate debated only eight out of the 23 amendments, it was wrong for
it to have adopted the whole report without needed debate.
He was however ruled out of Order by Mark, who quoted the senate Standing Order 53(6) to knock him off his argument.
The
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, explained that the National
Assembly would upon receipt of the report from the state Houses of
Assembly, forward the final document for presidential assent.
Source: The Punch
