Ezekwesili, Yesufu, Others Seek Local Govt Autonomy
The Office of the Citizen (OOTC) has made a case for local government autonomy in Nigeria in order to achieve the desired development plans for the citizenry.
The OOTC team, which made the appeal at the maiden virtual Democracy Dialogue on June 12 with the theme: ‘Promoting Sustainable Development Models for Effective Local Governance’, said the event was designed to compel key political and electoral reform actions for credible, transparent, free and fair elections by the executive, legislature,
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security establishment.
Speaking during the event, the Founder of #FixPolitics, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, said: “Nigeria is faced with serious structural challenges in its democracy and governance, and nothing works until structural solutions are provided.”
The former vice president of the World Bank revealed that the country’s problems cannot be solved from the top cadre of governance, unless the grassroots are involved.
She said: “That means we cannot start solving problems of the country from the rooftops. We believe that for functionality, we have to correct the structure, which is at the centre of constitutional change. A Nigeria that works has to be designed by the people. We need to place the grassroots at the heart of the Nigeria project.”
Also, social activist, Aisha
Yesufu, called for total citizen inclusion in the democratic process, even at home, adding that the government should involve the citizens in decisionmaking. Yesufu advocated attitudinal change in governance and autonomy for local government administration.