By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi
Sequel to the Supreme Court judgment that directs implementing autonomy to the existing 774 Local Government as the Third Tier of Government, the Bauchi state government has prepared two draft laws to guide the implementation of the autonomy.
This followed the adoption of a resolution of stakeholders’ consultative meeting held at the Banquet Hall of the Government House presided over by the State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed.
Briefing journalists shortly after the stakeholders consultative meeting, the Secretary to the Bauchi State Government (SSG), Aminu Hammayo, disclosed that the State Government would soon present two Executive Bills to the State House of Assembly on how to address the issue.
Alh. Aminu Hammayo explained that the draft bills were during the meeting corroborated from inputs of stakeholders, including members of the State Executive Council who worked in synergy and partnership with the Local Government Chairmen, and members of the Bauchi House of Assembly, assuring that the two bills will in a couple of days be presented to the Legislature for its consideration.
He further told the press “What is important is the fact that His Excellency has opened up the issue for discussions, and we have received alot of inputs from various perspectives the state have, which included perspectives of Local Government Chairmen as operators of the local government councils
Also received from among others, Hammayo disclosed, are perspectives from members of the State House of Assembly members whom, he pointed out, are basically responsible for laws governing the administration of Local Government Councils in the state.
Government’s Scribe Hammayo also recalled, “Over the last six to seven months, the most topical issue in Nigeria was the autonomy of the LGAs, which arose as a result of the Supreme Court judgment granting autonomy to Local Government Councils”.
Alh. Aminu Hammayo gave the two draft laws as ‘A law for Local Government Administration, 2025 and a ‘Law for Economic Planning of Bauchi State’, as products of the stakeholders meeting, stressing that the inputs were from the participants received, discussed and synchronized into the draft laws.
He further explained, “A lot of discussions have taken place around the consultative meeting, and the Governor felt it necessary for us, as a state, to examine critically issues surrounding LG Councils autonomy in order to come up with a framework and key provisions to guide us in implementing the autonomy”.
The SSG said that the meeting was climaxed with various inputs and debates on paper presentations, leading to the formulation of two draft bills that will be sent to the House of Assembly to define how best to run local government administration in Bauchi state.
“We had several paper presentations addressing Local Government administration, revenue generation and sharing formula, current structure, and other relevant issues. The two draft bills were discussed, scrutinized by the stakeholders, and coordinated and prepared by the Attorney-General and the State Commissioner of Justice”.
The SSG who said that the bills will be presented to the State House of Assembly for legislative purposes and eventual passage into law, in line with the Supreme Court judgment granting autonomy to LGAs in the country, and assured a hitch free implementation of the autonomy.
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