Senator Abdurahman Kawu Sumaila has issued a stern warning to state governors obstructing the entrenchment of full autonomy for local governments, urging them to desist before it is too late.

Speaking in Kano during the North-West Zonal Public Hearing of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Senator Sumaila, who represents Kano South Senatorial District, lamented that state governments remain the major stumbling block to the realization of full local government autonomy in Nigeria.

“I must commend President Bola Tinubu for not only accepting the bill I sponsored on local government autonomy, but also for taking the matter to the Supreme Court to secure a definitive judgment in favour of the 774 local government areas,” he said.

He emphasized that the long-standing struggle for the emancipation of local governments supported by President Tinubu, the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), and other civil society groups must not be in vain.

Expressing concern, the senator said: “State governors are bent on keeping the councils under their control by withholding their allocations and reducing them to beggars. This must stop.”

He stressed that the National Assembly and all stakeholders must resist any further attempts to undermine the independence of the third tier of government.

“We cannot allow the blockage of local government autonomy by state actors. We must fight using all available legal and constitutional means to make it happen,” he stated.

Senator Sumaila, who accompanied local government union leaders to present a draft bill to the Senate Constitution Review Committee, commended the committee, chaired by Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, for holding the public hearing in Kano.