PUBLIC HEARING: LCDAs Have Come To Stay, Lagos Speaker says

PUBLIC HEARING: LCDAs Have Come To Stay, Lagos Speaker says

…as Assembly holds public hearing on proposed local govt law

The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, has said there are no plans to scrap the 37 Local Government Development Areas (LCDAs) of the state.

Dr. Obasa, represented by Deputy Speaker Mojisola Lasbat Meranda, said this at a second public hearing on the bill to amend the Local Government Administration law of the state on Thursday.

“We are gathered here to consider and reflect on a bill that seeks to further enhance how our third tier of government should be administered.

“The LCDAs have come to stay and they would remain so by the special grace of God. Nobody is killing the LCDAs. Instead, we have come to say here is the Supreme Court judgement; how do we go about it? I know we all have the interest of this state at heart.

“Did we follow the right part in creating the LCDAs? The answer is ‘yes’. So at this point, it is a call for every Lagosian to rise up and protect the LCDAs by reaching out to all our representatives at the national level.

“Our representatives and senators should lobby their colleagues there. We will continue to do our part and we are doing it to ensure that the 37 LCDAs are listed in the constitution,” the Speaker said.

He recalled that just about two weeks ago, people were also gathered to deliberate on the electoral bill for the Local government election which he said is the first right step before the House could go into how the local governments should function.

“This Bill has passed the preliminary stages and the House is hereby subjecting it to public appraisal in our transparent convention. At this stage, we subject the bill to public assessment, gathering public observations and thoughts to reflect on them in the next stage of the bill.

“The bill is seeking to consolidate all laws on local government administration. The law, when passed, will allow the local governments function optimally with strict adherence to the rule of law and separation of powers,” he added.

The Speaker stressed that the bill also made mention of four-year tenure for the elective offices in the local government, which, according to him, has finally removed the ambiguity of the past as regards tenure of these elective officers.

The bill, he said, has elaborated all that needs to be done for an effective administration of the local governments including declaration of assets, nomination of a chairman, removal of a chairman or vice chairman, discharge of functions of the chairman, local government area supervisors appointees, executive powers of the local government, street naming and many more.