The National President of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), Hon. Kolade David Alabi has called for an end to what he described as the “unconstitutional deductions from the local government’s account without recourse to the local government from the federation account.”

He spoke at the ongoing ALGON General Assembly in Abuja under the theme “Strategic Positioning For The Future: A New Era”.

The ALGON National President who noted that the greatest challenge of the greatest challenge so far for the association has been “that of arbitrary suspension or removal of democratically (chairmen and councilors) duly elected local government administration.”

To this end, he said the prayers of the association at the ongoing general assembly meeting include devolution of powers, both financial and administrative, saying “Though the Nigeria Financial Intelligent Unit (Nfiu) is a welcome intiative, what we seek for is Devolution of Powers, both financial and administrative with concomitant fiscal devolution.”

He also prayed for “Complete autonomy for local government/area councils which is more desirable for their effective administration and service to the people”, “Review of 1999 constitution as relates to local government administration” and “Uniform tenure of 4-years term for local government administration.

The National President also called for the “Decentralization of the Nigeria Police and having in its place state police that will make policing more effective.”

On his part, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajiabiamila in his goodwill message at the event lamented that the absence of clear understanding of the concept of the separation of powers and place responsibilities of the three tiers of government by the people due to poor local government administration.

Pledging the support of the National Assembly, he noted that “This is the time to get the local government working”, adding that “if we don’t fix the local government administration, we shall continue to be working in circles.”

He assured that the national assembly will give its unalloyed support to whatever resolutions taken by the general assembly to deepen the democracy and local government administration.

In his goodwill message, the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, noted that the country is going through a lot of challenges, urging ALGON to live up to its responsibility, particularly in area of assistance in intelligence gathering to tackle security challenges in the country.

The Minister of Special Duties and Inter Governmental Affairs, Senator George Akume, who was represented by Mr. Simon Tyungu, a Deputy Director in the Ministry, noted in his goodwill message that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has demonstrated considerable political will to deepen local government administration by insisting on autonomy of local governments in Nigeria.

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