Autonomy: Elected LG system, panacea for rural development, says Mbamara

By Alex Ibeh
As Imo People are hopeful for Conduct of Local government election in the near future, a Lagos based legal practitioner, Prince Ngozi Roosevelt Mbamara has pointed out that the exercise would reinvigorate the rural development in the State.

Mbamara who stated this in his country home, Amaraku-nna Ancient Kingdom,the Palatial home of HRH Eze Joseph Chimereze Mbamara, VI, Ojinnaka Obi-Aku1 Uzi of Amaraku-Nna Ancient Kingdom, Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State in an interactive session with the Press, commended the Governor Senator Hope Uzodimma for deeming it necessary to conduct the local government election across the 27 Council Areas.

Recall that the Imo State Independent Electoral Commission (ISIEC) has officially announced that Council election would hold on 21st September, 2024.
Prince Mbamara however stressed that the conduct of local government election in Imo State is overdue.
According to him, I want to emphasize that holding a local government election in Imo is long overdue. In the context of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the local government system has the constitutional backing, it shouldn’t be at the Governor’s discretion but an obligation to hold local government election because our legal framework guarantees the local government system.

He insisted that local government is the hierarchy closest to the people, noting that among the three tiers of the government; Federal, State and Local, the later deals with the locals and grassroots.

He said: “on the account of the fact that the Federal and State governments are in place, it’s an aberration for not allowing the local government to function in line with others”
“As the name implies, the local government is the one that hears the People’s problems and easily accessible by the people”

Talking about the Local government autonomy, he took a swipe on the recent suit filed by the Federal government through the Attorney general of the Federation against the 36 State Governors at the Supreme Court seeking an order to allow federation allocations to be credited directly to the accounts of the councils, to stop Governors from constituting caretaker committees to run council affairs, describing it as meddlesome.

“The issue of local government autonomy shouldn’t arise in the first place.” “To me, it’s even meddlesome because the matter It’s not necessary as you can see that the local government system is constitutionally provided for.
“There is even five Supreme Court Judgments on this same topic about the autonomy of the local government. “The question of local government autonomy shouldn’t be negotiable if truly there is rule of law in the country.

The 2019 former Aspirant for Isiala Mbano State Constituency in the Imo State House of Assembly who contested under the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) said currently he took a break for his ambition in order to reflect on personal development and improve on his education, other areas and legal practice.

While baring his passion for Politics, he described it as a platform for social engineering and development.
He therefore called for the unity of Isiala Mbano leaders because according to him, their unity and support for the present administration will attract more dividends of democracy to the area.
While disclosing that his next political Platform would be made known in due course, he remarked that his interest in politics was borne out of passion to affect the living standard of the people among other things.