Senator Sumaila Warns Governors, Grant LGs Autonomy or Face Consequences.

Senator Abdurahman Sumaila, representing Kano South Senatorial District, issued a strong warning to state governors today, urging them to cease obstructing the full implementation of local government autonomy. He emphasized that governors are the primary impediment to the financial and administrative independence of local councils in Nigeria.
Speaking in Kano during the North-West Zonal Public Hearing of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Senator Sumaila lauded President Bola Tinubu for his commitment to local government autonomy. “I must commend President Bola Tinubu for not only accepting the bill I sponsored on local government autonomy, but also for taking the matter to the Supreme Court to secure a definitive judgment in favour of the 774 local government areas,” Sumaila stated.
The Senator stressed that the ongoing fight for the emancipation of local governments, backed by President Tinubu, the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), and other civil society groups, must not be futile.
“State governors are bent on keeping the councils under their control by withholding their allocations and reducing them to beggars. This must stop,” Senator Sumaila declared, highlighting the pervasive issue of financial strangulation faced by local councils.
He affirmed that the National Assembly and other relevant stakeholders must actively resist any further attempts by governors to undermine the independence of the third tier of government. “We cannot allow the blockage of local government autonomy by state actors. We must fight using all available legal and constitutional means to make it happen,” he asserted.
Senator Sumaila, who joined local government union leaders in presenting a draft bill to the Senate Constitution Review Committee, commended the committee, chaired by Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, for organizing the public hearing in Kano.