Social Action Renews Call for Local Government Autonomy and Fiscal Reforms with the new Government

Social Action calls for the abolition of the States, Local Government Joint Account to End Corrupt Practices and called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 36 state governors and House of Assemblies to expedite action towards passing the local government autonomy bill into law. In a statement made to the public and the press at a one-day Citizens and Government Consultative Dialogue on “Inclusive and Transparent Budgeting Processes in Nigeria’s LGAs in Ado Ekiti, the Senior Project Officer, Dr. Prince Edegbuo, maintained that local government autonomy is critical for effective development at the grassroots.

In a Citizens Report on Budgets and Projects in Selected Local Governments in Ekiti State, Social Action also called for reforms to strengthen financial autonomy in the LGAs. According to Dr. Edegbuo, addressing LGA challenges requires concerted efforts at various levels of government; including reforms to strengthen financial autonomy, review of the current constitution, anti-corruption measures, capacity-building programs, citizen engagement initiatives, and investment in infrastructure and technology. Citizens Report on Budgets and Projects in Selected Local Governments in Ekiti State.

The budget analysis in Ado-Ekiti shows that the sum of four billion, three hundred and seventy-six million, five hundred and eleven thousand, seventy-two naira (N4,376,511,072.00) was proposed as the total budget size by the Ado -Ekiti local Government Council for the 2021 fiscal year.

In related developments, a call was made to President Bolsa Ahmed Tinubu-led government to re-transmit the Local Government Autonomy bill to the National Assembly (NASS) for speedy passage. The call becomes necessary because of the need to kick start the process to avoid the process suffering unfortunate expiration as experienced with efforts put in during the last Assembly. The one-day Citizens and Government Consultative Dialogue on inclusive budgeting for effective service delivery was held in Ugbolokposo, Uvwie council area of Delta state. The Statement signed by the Senior programme officer also urged governors across the 36 states to support the drive for Local Government autonomy to Fast-track development in the hinterlands.

Deliberations on “Inclusive Budgeting for Effective Service Dialogue” by partners in Enugu

In a similar meeting held in Enugu, Social Action urged the 774 Local Government Chairmen to run an open, inclusive and participatory regime, as well as mainstream gender and social inclusion into its operations, develop functional websites for communications and proactive disclosures between the people, communities and the council leadership, finally, projects should be designed using the NEEDS Assessment development tool. The citizens and Government Consultative dialogue meetings were supported by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF)