The Director-General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Study, Professor Abubakar Sulaiman has disclosed that granting autonomy to local government can reduce the spate of insecurity drastically in the country.
While also emphasising the importance of autonomy for the state legislature for the advancement of democracy, he described the southwest as the most advanced in terms of knowledge and development, hence must not be left behind in advancing democratic principle.
The former Minister of National Planning spoke during a courtesy visit to Osun State Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola at his office in Osogbo.
He said the rising insecurity across the country was due to the lacuna created at the grassroots, adding that if the third tier of government is given full autonomy governance would be closer to the masses and reduce pressure on the other tiers.
“If there must be peace and less pestilence in Nigeria local governments must be given relative autonomy to work with.
“We want to urge you, as we have been doing in other state government, that as you have been listening to the yearnings of labour unions, you should listen to the yearnings of the local government workers.
“With this, the development will go back to the grassroots, it was the Lacuna at the local government level that is informing this kind of insecurity in Nigeria today among other factors.
“On the issue of financial autonomy for the judiciary and the parliament, we have been at the forefront of that advocacy, the parliamentarians and the parliament must be granted autonomy as enshrined in the constitution and the executive order 10.
“For democracy and harmony to thrive and for peace to reign, stakeholders in a democracy must perform their functions. They must live to the expectations of the people that elected them.
“We are not unaware of the fact that the military interregnum in Nigerian politics has pushed aside the parliament, as denied them their role in governance over the years and that was why the leadership of democracy in the fourth republic now thought it wise to put in place an organ that will bridge the knowledge gap of Nigerian parliamentarians”, he said.
In his remark, Governor Oyetola, who was dazzled that Osun is not one of the 33 states that keyed into the programme and pledged to ensure that Osun becomes one of the states involved in running the programme.
The Director-General was also at the palace of Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, where he pledged to use the institution’s mandate to advance democratic tenets in the country.
