LG Autonomy: What it means and how it affects me

The news went round yesterday that the supreme court has granted autonomy to the 774 local governments  areas in Nigeria.

Expectedly mixed reactions have trailed the news with different people making their views and opinions known.

How do we make meaning of the news and   understand the implications in the midst of the noises trailing it?

Let's understand the background first. The 1999 constitution  recognizes the Federal, government, the state governments and the local governments as the three tiers of government in the country. The federal government has it account while the constitution made provision for each state and it's local governments to have a joint account. Over years this joint account owned by each state and it's local governments has become more or less that of the state government with the state governor spending the money that belongs to the local governments leaving the local governments with little or nothing to meet their financial obligations.

This has led to the local governments owing  workers, neglect of infrastructural developments , poor development at the grassroots and so on.

 The resultant effect is that the local governments which should take dividends of democracy to the grassroots and rural areas do not have the funds to perform their responsibilities. And the effect of government is hardly felt at the grassroots while the money meant for this is being pocketed by a few privileged individuals at the state level.

The supreme court judgement implies that the money meant for the local governments will now be paid to them directly rather than to the joint account controlled by the states. The resultant effect is that the local governments can use their funds as they deem fit.

The primary health care falls under the jurisdiction of local governments. They will be able to hire and pay more health workers to improve the health of the populace at the grassroots.

Local governments will also have enough resources to construct roads that fall under local government purview. This will lead to the opening up and connectivity of rural areas to urban centres.

Agriculture will also receive a boost as most agricultural activities take place at the rural areas.

Economic activities will also receive a big lift with more money in circulation at the local government level. This is a very important benefit as one of the indirect consequences of the state governors spending the money meant for local governments is that the money circulates only among a few top politicians mainly in the capital. Now, more money will reach the grassroots. Economic activities will receive a big boost, there will be increase in job creation also.