Creation of new LGs overdue
I wish to use this medium
to make my contribution
to the deluge of writings in some tabloids on the above stated issue of national concern as the National Assembly is preparing for the proposed constitutional amendement in which creation of additional new Local Government Areas and states have been purportedly listed as top of the agenda.
Equally, the National Assembly deserves kudos for taking steps to consider the pending proposals on local government creation before it, which of course is long overdue. Many of the affected states/areas agitating for additional new Local Government Areas had sent such proposals to the National Assembly for consideration and subsequent approval since the first term tenure of ex-President Obasanjo.
Nevertheless, now that the National Assembly is about to consider this matter, it should be objective and mindful of the costs and benefits of local government and state creation such that the exercise will not be wholly done out of political gerrymandering. To this effect, due consideration should be given to claims of genuine agitation for new local governments, as well as to the empirical results of various referendums previously conducted in the affected states/ areas where new Local Government Areas are to be created, so that the outcome would be acceptable to all and sundry.
In addition, the National Assembly should not forget to adequately address the problem of administrative lapses that is likely to ensue, should additional new local governments be created. For this, I suggest that Local Council Administrators should be appointed to take charge tentatively in the newly created local gevernments pending the time when election would be properly conducted in such councils as was done during the 1997 Local Government creation exercise.
Lastly, the National Assembly should also consider the proposal on the improvement of the political status of Ibadan , the capital of present day Oyo State in its schedule of state creation as a measure to correct imbalance in the Nigerian geo-political arrangement, with a view to make Ibadan City a state on its own just like other regional headquarters like Kaduna and Enugu which have now become full-fledged states. This partly justifies the agitation for creation of “OKE - OGUN” State
Ademola Morufu,
P.O. Box 101,
Iseyin,
Oyo State.
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