The Nasarawa State House of Assembly has initiated a public hearing to seek stakeholders’ input on a bill to implement the Supreme Court judgement granting autonomy to local government areas.
The executive bill titled “A Bill for a Law to Repeal and Re-enact the Establishment, Structure, Composition, Finance and Function of Local Government System in Nasarawa State 2024 and Other Matters Connected to it” was unveiled on the Assembly floor by the Speaker, Mr Danladi Jatau, last week.
The speaker declared the public hearing open on Monday and said that if passed and assented into law, the bill would boost grassroots development in the state.
“The Assembly received a Bill for a Law to Repeal and Re-enact the Establishment, Structure, Composition, Finance and Function of Local Government System in Nasarawa State 2024 and Other Matters Connected to it.
“This is to conform with the Supreme Court Judgement granting local government autonomy in the country. His Excellency, Gov Abdullahi Sule, as a respecter of the rule of law, has done the right thing by sending the bill to the House. What we want is to ensure speedy development at the grassroots.
“ We believe we will get inputs that are expected of us, and I strongly believe that at the end of the day, we will come up with a clean bill that will be in conformity with Supreme Court Judgement”, he assured.
For his part, Hon Musa Ibrahim Abubakar, the Chairman of the House Committee on LG, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, said the bill aimed at strengthening the local government to ensure that the chairmen carry out their activities effectively.
“What we are doing is to amend the local government law to conform with the Supreme Court judgement,” he explained.
According to him, his committee has already received intentions from the state traditional council, the ministry for LG, the State Pension Bureau, and the LG Service Commission, among others.
“We will sit down and look at their presentations and Memos carefully and come out with a clean bill to that effect,” he assured.
In his contributions, the Emir of Lafia, retired Justice Sidi Bage Muhammad, advocated for directly allocating 5 per cent of Gross Income from the federation account to the traditional institution’s account.
“ We are happy with the Supreme Court Judgement granting local government autonomy.
“ Our concern as an institution of government are those things that affect us directly and our people,” he said.
Also, Prof. Musa Yusha’u of the Federal University of Lafia urged the committee to examine the laws creating development areas and possibly return them to their parent LGs for effective service delivery.
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