The Agora Policy to hold dialogue on Local Government Area (LGA) reform to review the implementation of Supreme Court’s judgment on financial autonomy to the LGAs, one year after the ruling.
The founder of the Agora Policy, Waziri Adio disclosed this in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja.
According to Adio, top policymakers, academics and members of civil society will gather to deliberate on how to improve the performance and relevance of Nigeria’s 774 local councils.
“The landmark judgement, which also mandated that the LGAs should be run by elected officials, was delivered by the Supreme Court on July 11, 2024 in a case instituted by the Federal Government.
“One year is a good time to take stock and to start thinking about far-reaching reforms aimed at ensuring that our local councils are well positioned to discharged their constitutional responsibilities and meet the expectations and needs of our citizens,” he said.
Adio said that the Minister of finance and coordinating Minister for the economy, Mr Wale Edun, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the event.
He said that the overall goal of the dialogue was to get critical stakeholders to focus on the imperative of roots and branch reforms at the local level and how to make them happen.
He disclosed that the Agora Policy has commissioned and published two policy papers on how to deepen local governance and local democracy in the country.
The papers according to him were “Beyond financial autonomy, the Imperative of moving from local government to local governance in Nigeria, published in August 2024.
”Why credible elections matter for the revival of local democracy in Nigeria, published on April 27.”
Adio said that the dialogue supported by MacArthur Foundation and five other civil society organisations, they would feature a panel session to dissect the progress and challenges with the implementation of the Supreme Court ruling.
He said that the dialogue is also expected to provide pathways for more effective, responsive and accountable local administration in the country.
