Nigerian States Should Be Left Alone To Decide Their Model Of LG – El-Rufai

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai has come out to say that every Nigerian state should decide the model of democratic local government that best suits it.

He recently revealed this at the public hearing of the Senate committee on the review of the 1999 constitution, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, it is best for each state to conclude on how many local governments it can efficiently run and fund for better governance and delivery of public goods.

He added that this should be the case because Nigeria is a federation of 36 states and the Federal Government.

His words, “The reality of our security situation today requires that Nigeria must strengthen its military and security agencies. This includes decentralizing the police to enable the states to exercise effective control in securing their residents and communities.’”

‘’We need to have federal, state and community police, with each granted sufficient powers to make them effective in securing the areas assigned to them and cooperating closely with each other.”

“Those expressing concerns about the ability of the states to bear the cost of policing should realize that apart from the payment of salaries by the federal government, most of the operational and capital costs of the Nigeria Police are borne by state and local governments.”

“The power to hire and fire police officers should revert fully and totally to the Inspector General of Police, under the supervision of the National Police Council, as envisaged by the Constitution.”

‘’States already control land within their territories, courtesy of the Land Use Act, which is incorporated into the Constitution by reference.”

“One of the reasons why mining has not quite taken off in our country is because of the dichotomy and total disconnect between the federal institution that issues licenses for mining and the state agencies that ultimately control not only the land and title thereto, but any approval to undertake any development on the land.”

‘’It is an anomaly to have a National Judicial Council appointing high court judges for states. This should be the responsibility of State Judicial Councils.”

‘’The remit of the National Judicial Council should be limited to the federal high and appellate courts. The constitutional amendment should clarify that the states can establish courts to exercise jurisdiction at first instance, or on appeal on matters for which the states can make laws.”

“In essence, I am suggesting that judges of State High Courts, Sharia Courts of Appeal and Customary Courts of Appeal should be nominated by the State Judicial Council, subject to confirmation by the House of Assembly.”