Nigeria Senate on Tuesday passed a bill to grant financial and administrative autonomy to local governments, state house of Assemblies and the Judiciary in the country.
The Senate on Tuesday voted for the proposed amendments to the 1999 constitution to grant financial autonomy to state houses of assembly, judiciary and local governments.
83 senators voted for financial autonomy to state houses of assembly and judiciary, while 1 senator voted against it.
For local government financial autonomy, 92 senators voted in favour of the proposed amendment, while two senators voted against it.
Meanwhile, the Red Chamber rejected a proposed amendment to change the name of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State to Gwul.
67 senators voted for the proposed change of name, while 28 voted against it. The proposal failed to meet the required two-third membership.
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The proposed law seeks to amend the Constitution to repeal the state joint local government account and provide for a special account where all allocations due to the local governments’ councils, from the federation account and state government, shall be paid.
In the bill, each local government council is to create and maintain its own special account to be called Local Government Allocation Account into which all the allocations will be paid.
The legislations also mandate each state to pay to local government councils in its area of jurisdiction such proportion of its internally generated revenue on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly.
For administrative autonomy, the bill seeks to allow local governments to conduct their own elections.
The lawmakers also voted in favour of financial autonomy for State Houses of Assembly and judiciary.
