Okitipupa (Ondo State): A former federal lawmaker and ADC chieftain, Sen. Nicholas Tofowomo, has said that local government autonomy will stem the security challenges currently facing the country.
Tofowomo, who represented Ondo South Senatorial District in the Ninth National Assembly, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Okitipupa.
He also said that for local government autonomy to thrive, the Federal Government must halt the release of their allocations from the Federation Account through the state governments.
NAN recalls that the Supreme Court had, on July 11, 2024, ruled in favour of local government autonomy, affirming that that they must receive their allocations directly from the Federation Account.
Tofowomo noted that with the the Supreme Court judgment, it had become illegal for state governors to hold on to the allocations due to local governments, a practice which, he said, was detrimental to the growth and development of the grassroots.
The former senator said that the actions of the governors had constituted a flagrant disobedience of a lawful court order which, he said, was aiding and abetting the current security challenges in the country.
According to him, Tinubu has tried by taking the contentious issue of local government autonomy to the nation’s apex court, resulting in the landmark judgment.
He, however, said that this was not enough, calling on the president to ensure that allocations were paid directly to the local governments.
“Local governments are the basis of development, and if they are not given that right of autonomy, then development will be far from reaching the grassroots.
“The insecurity bedevilling our nation can be checked and tackled from the grassroots, if the local governments have autonomy because each of them will monitor it’s domain, beef-up security and protect lives and property.
“The local governments understand their terrains better than the state; their security measures will help stem insecurity across the country.
“Any government that can provide these two things: security and electricity will definitely get to the hearts of the masses,” he said.
Tofowomo urged the federal government to improve more on the country’s security architecture and electricity as part of the ways of tackling the menace of insecurity.