State Assemblies will still vote to grant local government autonomy in the ongoing constitutional amendment, the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has stated.
It said contrary to speculations that about 26 State Houses of Assembly were yet to consider the bill sent by the National Assembly.
Speaker Yakubu Dogara had lampooned state legislators for throwing out the local government autonomy bill when considering the constitutional amendment bills sent to them for concurrence, saying they disappointed Nigerians who elected them.
But National President of the union, Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel, said only Imo and Edo Assemblies voted against the bill.
About 26 states were yet to take a definite position on the issue of local government autonomy, while eight others have voted in favour of the bill, he stated.
Khaleel said since most states were yet to consider the bill and take a definite stand, it will be out of place to send the wrong signals the bill has been rejected describing the issue as work in progress.
He said what was presented to the National Assembly by the Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly was the position of the state legislators on other items of the constitutional amendment, which they have all taken a position on.
According to him: “Among the 10 states that have considered it, eight states Kwara, Benue, Niger, Plateau, Bauchi, Cross River, Bayelsa and Ogun states voted for local government autonomy while only two; Edo and Imo, rejected it by voting against it.”
Khaleel, who said he had sought clarification from the Chairman, Conference of Speakers and senior officials of the National Assembly, pointed out that Rivers and Lagos states have not even worked on the Local Government Autonomy Bill while the remaining 24, who joined the other 10 states to transmit it to the National Assembly, said they have stepped the bill down for further consultation.
