How heads of administration will lead the struggle for LGAs’ true autonomy

Friday 12th August 2022 will go down memory lane in the age-long struggle to grant autonomy to and reposition our local governments in the country. 

Indeed, it was an August gathering in August when highly tested and seasoned administrators converged at the prestigious Green Minds Hotel, Utako, Abuja for a 2-day national delegates conference held on the 11th and 12th of August 2022. Under the auspices of the National Association of Heads of Local Government administration of Nigeria (NAHOLGAN), which is an umbrella body of all heads of administration/personnel in the 774 local governments of the country. The association has come to represent a renewed hope in the efforts of entire local government employees to have a formidable force in fighting for their genuine cause, yearnings, and aspirations, given the fact that the local governments as the third-tier system of administration in the country have been crippled and rendered ineffective. 

This has, therefore, created the need for urgent and practical steps to rescue the system from total collapse. And that was the major reason why NAHOLGAN came into being. Even with its pioneer set of executives whose four-year term has expired and replaced by the presently elected and constituted 14-member exco led by Alhaji Abdulrahman Marafa and current head of administration of Charanci Local Government of Katsina State as its national president; Comrade Noel Itade, Bayelsa State as secretary and Mr Samuel Nancwat Laksing from Plateau as treasurer. Others are Mr Atibioke A. Olaoluwa, national financial secretary, Ondo State, and four other zonal vice presidents, among others.

A nonpolitical, non-religious, and non-tribal association, NAHOLGAN is neither a trade union group like the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) or a politically-inclined Association for Local Governments in Nigeria (ALGON), composed of elected councils’ chairmen. Among its broad aims and objectives include fashioning out ways and strategies to confront and address all those identified challenges that hitherto hindered the attainment of a fully developed and managed local government system in the country. It also serves as a forum for the promotion of national unity and integration which obviously could lead to sustained peace and development.

The exco also intends to embark on advocacy by reaching out to the Federal Executive Council, the Judiciary, National and State Assemblies, offices of both Inter-governmental and State Ministries for Local Government affairs, including the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation as well as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation for recognition.

Mohammed Ahmed Yidikawu writes from Abuja