- Afenifere Renewal Group warned National assembly against Local government autonomy
- The group said there are traps hidden in the Land Use Act which National Assembly has refused to withdraw
A Yoruba pan-African organisation, Afenifere Renewal Group, has warned the National Assembly against granting autonomy power to the Local Government.
The group said the proposed constitution review which will strip the statem of some powers and grant them to local governments will encourage herdsmen attacks in some state.
In a statement of Sunday by group spokesperson, Kunle Famoriyo, the group said it is against the idea because there are hidden traps that will not benefit states that are already suffering the menace of herdsmen attacks.
In a reports by Premium Times, the groups statement claimed that: “There are traps hidden in the Land Use Act which the National Assembly cleverly refused to remove from the Constitution,” said the Yoruba sociocultural group.
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“As an example, Section 6(1)(b) says that ‘(1) It shall be lawful for a Local Government in respect of land not in an urban area…to grant customary right of occupancy to any person or organisation for the use of land for grazing purposes and such other purposes ancillary to agricultural purposes…’ The customary right of occupancy can be as much as 500 hectares if granted for agricultural purposes, or 5,000 hectares if granted for grazing purposes.
“The main reason for the push to remove LGA from under the control of state governments is to make this clause in the Land Use Act enforceable.
"The so-called autonomy therefore is a “Greek Gift” and states with recent history of herdsmen attack had better collaborate with other states to reject it. ARG will work with states in the southwest to totally agitate against it.
"The advocates of autonomy for LGAs need to convince Nigerians of the benefit of such, despite the glaring fact that it is an aberration in any federalism and it works against development. If Nigeria is yet to get the possible maximum good governance from 36 executive powers granted to states, what will creating additional 774 executive powers bring? Total waste and failure.”
The group said the proposal will further ruin federalism and destroyed LGA.
They claimed: “This plan will further destroy federalism in Nigeria and turn it effectively into a unitary state. However, we must remind Nigerians that there is nothing the federal government has taken over, since the enactment of the Unification Decree 34 of 1966, that has flourished.
“As example, the Liberty Stadium in Ibadan was already hosting international boxing fight before it was taken over. Today, it cannot even host national championships. In the same vein are WNTV, Obafemi Awolowo University, Cocoa Research Institute (CRIN), Moore Plantation and many other notable institutions.
“We can assure you that LGAs will be worse off if this so-called autonomy is allowed to pass. This is because those controlling Abuja have no better plan for the country other than as a conquest. ARG warns all state Houses of Assembly to resist this legislation."
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Meanwhile, the Afenifere Renewal Group has said it doubts the capacity of the El Rufai-led committee of the All Progressives Congress on restructuring to advise the party appropriately on the subject.
The pan-Yoruba socio-political group, in a statement signed by its publicity secretary, Kunle Famoriyo, reiterated that restructuring has to be according to the expressed wishes of the people of Nigeria, irrespective of the outcome of the El-Rufai-led committee.
NAIJ.com gathered that the group said that the majority of the committee members have hitherto publicly denounced the subject as either irrelevant or irresponsible and their publicly known personal stance may largely influence the committee’s report.
Watch this NAIJ.com TV video asking Nigerians if they want the country to be restructured or to split: