By Tolúlopé Olátúnjí
Anambra State governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has faulted the Federal Government’s position on the autonomy of local government in the country, arguing that it contradicts true federalism.
Speaking at The Platform Nigeria, an event organized by Covenant Nation in Lagos to mark the 2024 Democracy Day, Soludo, who served as Speaker from 2015 to 2019, said the autonomy of local government would regress the nation’s federalism.
The event, themed “Democracy and the Free Market Economy,” featured prominent attendees including former Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan-Kukah, and former Speaker of the House of Representatives Yakubu Dogara.
Soludo noted that no true federal system in the world has three federal units, and local governments in countries like the United States do not receive funds directly from the central government.
The Anambra State governor emphatically stated: “Each state must have the power to design the kind of local government system that they want. That is what true federalism is about.”
Soludo also called for the devolution of certain responsibilities from the Federal Government to the states, suggesting that 60 to 65 percent of revenues should go to the states.
Meanwhile, he made a proposal for the unification the National Assembly into a single chamber, arguing that the current system is unsustainable.
“Why not consolidate the National Assembly into one with no more than five representatives per state? We don’t need a National Assembly costing over N300bn yearly to maintain. We don’t need it,”Soludo stated.
He said : “We need to tinker with the fiscal powers of the federal and state governments, devolve much of the responsibilities under the Exclusive List to the states, and at about 60 to 65 percent of the revenues to the states, with each deciding on the local system to adopt.”
Soludo suggested that a fixed single term, whether four, five, six, or seven years, would help elected officials focus on governance rather than re-election campaigns.
The former Central Bank governor said :“You are not thinking about the next election once you finish getting into this.”
