The Lagos State House of Assembly will hold another public hearing on the Local Government Administration Bill 2024 before the assembly.

The Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, made the announcement at a plenary in Lagos on Monday.

The bill is titled: A Bill for a Law to Provide for Local Government’s System, Establishment And Administration And to Consolidate All Laws On Local Government Administration And Connected Purposes.

The assembly, on Thursday, held a public hearing on the bill, which stakeholders said was not given adequate publicity.

The speaker said after due consultation, the House had agreed to conduct another public hearing on the bill.

He said the House would also invite the attorney-general of the state, Lawal Pedro, for an interpretation of the recent Supreme Court judgement on financial autonomy for local governments.

The speaker noted that the proposed bill was not to scrap the existing 37 LCDAs but to strengthen them based on the ruling of the Supreme Court on the financial autonomy of the local government.

Mr Obasa said the bill would further strengthen the LCDAs, adding that what the assembly was trying to do was to look at the recent Supreme Court judgement in terms of the state and local governments’ joint account.

The speaker said this was to fashion out a way where the parent local governments and the LDCAs can work together without the them short-changed.

Mr Obasa said the review of the local government administration law was not aimed at scrapping LCDAs but to further strengthen them.

“I agree on the need for us to schedule a second allotted day for the public hearing because I have been inundated with calls by people who wanted to know the fate of the LCDAs.

“We are not scrapping the LDCAs. Rather, what we are trying to do is to look at the recent Supreme Court judgement in terms of Lagos and local governments’ joint account.

“This is to fashion out a way where the parent local governments and the LDCAs can work together,” he said.

The speaker also said there was a need to work on the formal listing of the LCDAs by the National Assembly.

He noted that Kano state has 44 local governments, and out of Kano, Jigawa was created and has 27 LGAs

Also speaking, the chairman, House committee on local government, Sanni Okanlawon, while giving a report on the public hearing, said many of the stakeholders invited to the event could not attend.

He attributed the poor attendance to the weather conditions of the day, and he prayed that the House would approve a second allotted day for the exercise.

On his part, Desmond Elliot (APC-Surulere 1) noted that because of the size of the state in terms of population and its economic importance to Nigeria, it was imperative to work for the listing of the LCDAs.

“Anambra state has 21 local governments, and it is nowhere close to what Lagos has in terms of resources, economic importance and dividends of democracy,” he said.

(NAN)