Senate Votes Against Restructuring, Approves Local Government Autonomy

The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday voted against devolution of powers to the States of the federation in a series of constitutional amendment going on in the senate.

This moves have nailed finally the widespread calls for political restructuring of the country.

The lawmakers however voted ‎in favour of financial autonomy for State Houses of Assembly and operation of separate account for local government councils.

In a move deemed antithetical to popular opinion, 48 senators voted against devolution of powers as against 46 who voted in favour.

This development effectively killed hopes of restructuring Nigeria’s skewed federal set-up which puts the state at a disadvantage against the government at the centre.

The 3rd constitutional amendment bill had sought to alter the Second Schedule, Part I & II of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to move certain items to the concurrent Legislative List to give more legislative powers to States.

It also sought to delineate the extent to which the federal legislature and state assemblies can legislate on the items that have been moved to the Concurrent Legislative List.

The Senate also rejected the bill on State Creation and boundary Adjustment with a ‘Yes’ vote of 47 and a ‘No’ vote of 48.

This bill had essentially sought to alter section 8 of the Constitution to ensure that only democratically elected local government councils participate in the process of State creation and boundary adjustment while also removing ambiguities in the extant provisions to enhance clarity with respect to the procedure for state creation.