The Hausa community in Jos, Plateau state, has said full autonomy of Local Government Councils and the judicial were major steps towards restructuring.
This is as the community maintained that autonomy in third tier of government and the judiciary if attained would solve a lot of the country’s agitations.
The Hausa community stated this in the memorandum signed by Hon. Dasuki Salihu Nakande, Hon. Sani Mudi, Alhaji Garba Abdulqadir, Shehu Ibrahim Masallah, and two others, and submitted to the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendment.
It read in part, “The first logical step to autonomy of the local government council as a third tie of government is free and fair election of leadership of the local government.
“Thus, election into the offices of local councils should be conducted by the national electoral body, the INEC. This calls for the amendment of section 7(1) as well as other related sections of the constitution to reflect this.
“Next to this is to ensure fiscal independence of the local government council by ensuring any federation allocation due to the local government areas is sent to them directly.”
The community, which argued adopting full federalism in a diverse nation like Nigeria should be a gradual process, however, noted it was inevitable as it would foster growth and healthy competitions among states.
They further suggested that the federal government should be left to handle issues of international concerns, while states handle the management of their road networks, even as agriculture should be the responsibility of both tiers of government.
“The concept of state police is very dicey especially in the absence of true federalism and entrenched nationalism that promotes citizenship and above any other consideration.
“In this regard the concept of community policing should be all encompassing of the various communities and should be given constitutional recognition,” they community advocated.
They also suggested the removal of immunity clause on issues of criminality where prima facie is established against any executive office holder, even as they made case for the present 36 states and 774 local government councils should be maintained.
