By NAOMI SHARANG

Rep. Eugene Dibiagwu, representing Ohaji-Egbema/Oguta/Oru West Federal Constituency of Imo, says the local government administration in Nigeria has been ?kidnapped? by state governors.

Speaking on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Personality Interview Series on Sunday in Abuja, Dibiagwu said the situation had resulted in lack of efficiency in the operations of the local governments.

?For a very long time, the local government system has been kidnapped by the governors to the extent that they have not been able to function optimally,? he said.

The lawmaker, who chairs the House Committee on Regional Development Commissions and Amnesty Programme, said that the National Assembly was taking all necessary steps to ensure full local government autonomy in the country.

Highlighting some of the bills he had sponsored in the Green Chamber, Dibiagwu said one of the most significant was the bill on local government autonomy.

?I have done some bills and motions, and some of them are already in the process. Let me just mention one: the local government administration autonomy bill.

?The independence of the local government administration is crucial.

?My bill, which has passed the second reading and which I am expecting that within a short time it will pass the third reading, is to guarantee full autonomy to the local government system in the country.

?It seeks to make the local governments fully autonomous, with their allocations coming directly to them from the Federal Government for effective administration,? he said.

Responding to questions on the Supreme Court judgment granting financial autonomy to all the 774 local councils in the country but which had yet to be implemented, Dibiagwu said that the National Assembly was moving to give the ruling a strong legal backing.

?What we are doing is to give that decision of the court a bite. This is so that nobody will now say he or she does not know about it.

?By the time we pass it into law, there will be no excuses by any government or agency for infringing on the rights of local governments,? he stated.

Dibiagwu, a first time member of the house of representatives, described lawmaking in the last two years as ?very robust?.

?We have been collaborating with our colleagues and things are in proper perspective. We are doing our best to ensure that we give Nigerians very good laws,? he said.

Addressing the perception by some persons that the national assembly had been reduced to a rubber stamp legislature, Dibiagwu described such comments as `unfortunate?.

?It is not true that the national assembly is a rubber stamp. There is nothing wrong with Nigeria having a collaborative government; that is, a national assembly working in synergy with the executive.

?If the president brings anything that we feel will move the country forward, we look at it, debate it and pass it. I don?t think anything is wrong with that,? he said. (NAN)

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