News
Bill to Strengthen Local Government Administration Passes Second Reading In House
By Gloria Ikibah
A proposed amendment to Nigeria’s Constitution aimed at improving governance, efficiency, and accountability in local government administration has passed its second reading in the House of Representatives on Wednesday at plenary.The bill, one of 42 considered during Wednesday’s plenary, is sponsored by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu and eight other lawmakers.According to its explanatory memorandum, the bill seeks to restructure the legal and administrative framework governing local councils. Its goal is to establish a stronger system that enhances local government operations, ensures efficient service delivery, and promotes transparency and democratic values at the grassroots level.
A copy of the draft indicates that Section 7 of the Constitution will be revised, replacing the existing provision with a new framework to support these objectives., “There shall be for each Local Government a democratically elected Chairman and a Vice-Chairman, who shall be qualified for election if he is an indigene of the local government; has attained the age of 25 years; and has been educated up to at least the first degree certificates or its equivalent.
“(2) A person elected to the Office of Chairman shall not begin to perform the functions of that Office until he has declared his assets and liabilities as prescribed in this Constitution and has subsequently taken and subscribed, before the Chief Judge of the State or his nominee, the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of Office as prescribed in the Seventh Schedule to this Constitution.”
Election of Chairman
The bill provides in Section 7 (1b) that “An election to the Office of Chairman shall be held on a date to be appointed by the responsible electoral body which shall be held on a date not earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the term of Office of the last holder of that Office.
“(2) A candidate for election to the Office of Chairman shall be deemed to have been duly elected where the candidate is the only person whose name was submitted to the electoral body for election; and there is more than one candidate, the candidate with the majority valid votes cast at the election.
Tenure
The tenure of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman and the Council shall be four years, and they may be eligible for a second term of four years and no more, as the bill provides in Section 7C.
Procedure for removal of Chairman and Vice-Chairman from Office
In Section 7D, the bill provides that “The Chairman or Vice-Chairman of a Local Government may be removed from office in accordance with the provisions of this Clause.
“(2) Whenever a notice of any allegation in writing signed by not less than one-third of the members of the Local Government Legislative Council, is presented to the Speaker of the Local Government Legislative Council, stating that the holder of such office is guilty of gross misconduct in the performance of the functions of his office, detailed particulars of which shall be specified.
“The Speaker of the Local Government Legislative Council shall within seven days of the receipt of the notice, cause a copy of the notice to be served on the holder of the office and on each member of the Local Government Legislative Council, and shall also cause any statement made in reply to the allegations by the holder of the office to be served on each member of the Local Government Legislative Council.”
“(3) Within 14 days of the presentation of the notice to the Speaker of the Local Government Legislative Council (whether or not any statement made by the holder of the office in reply to the allegation contained in the notice), the Local Government Legislative Council shall resolve by motion without any debate whether or not the allegation shall be investigated.
“(4) A motion of the Local Government Legislative Council that the allegation be investigated shall not be declared as having been passed unless it is supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds majority of all the members of the Local Government Council.
“(5) Within seven days of the passing of a motion under the foregoing provisions, the Chief Judge of the State shall at the request of the Speaker of the Local Government Legislative Council appoint a panel of seven persons who in his opinion are of unquestionable integrity, not being members of any public service, legislative house or political party, to investigate the allegation as provided in this clause.
“(6) The holder of an office whose conduct is being investigated under this Clause shall have the right to defend himself in person or be represented before the Panel by a legal practitioner of his own choice.”
“(7) A panel appointed under this clause shall have such powers and exercise its functions in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed by the Local Government Legislative Council; and within three months of its appointment, report its findings to the Local Government Legislative Council.
“(8) Where the panel reports to the Local Government Legislative Council that the allegation has not been proved, no further proceedings shall be taken in respect of the matter.
“(9) Where the report of the panel is that the allegation against the holder of the office has been proved, then, within 14 days of the receipt of the report, the Local Government Legislative Council shall consider the report and if by a resolution of the Local Government Legislative Council supported by not less than two-thirds majority of all its members, the report of the panel is adopted, then the holder of the office shall stand removed from office as from the date of the adoption of the report.”
Permanent incapacity of Chairman and Vice-Chairman
The Chairman or Vice-Chairman shall cease to hold Office if, “By a resolution passed by a two-thirds majority of all the members of the Local Government Legislative Council, it is declared that the Chairman or the Vice-Chairman is incapable of discharging the functions of his Office; and the declaration is verified, after such medical examination as may be necessary, by a medical panel established under this part of the Constitution.”
“(2) The panel shall be appointed by the Speaker of the Local Government Legislative Council and shall comprise three medical practitioners in Nigeria, one of whom may be a medical practitioner of the choice of the concerned Chairman or Vice-Chairman and two other medical practitioners.
“(3) Where the medical panel certifies in its report that in its opinion, the Chairman or Vice-Chairman is suffering from such infirmity of body or mind which renders him permanently incapable of discharging the functions of his office, a notice thereof signed by the Speaker of the Local Government Legislative Council shall be published in a Journal of the Local Government.
“(4) The Chairman or Vice-Chairman shall cease to hold office from the date of publication of the notice of the medical report.
“(5) Where the office of the Chairman becomes vacancy by reason of death or removal, the Vice-Chairman of the Local Government Council shall hold the Office of Chairman and in the absence of the Vice-Chairman, the Speaker of the Council shall hold office for a period of not more than 3 months, during which there shall be an election of a new Chairman, who shall hold Office in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.
“(6) Where the office of Vice-Chairman becomes vacant by reason of death or resignation or removal or for any other reason, the Chairman shall nominate a candidate to the Local Government Legislative Council and upon the confirmation by two-thirds all the Members of the Local Government Legislative Council, such candidate shall take office as the Vice-Chairman to complete the unexpired term of office.”
Death of Chairman-Elect before Oath of Office
In 7G, the bill provides that “If a person duly elected as Chairman dies or withdraws before taking and subscribing to the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of Office, the person elected with him as Vice-Chairman shall be sworn in as Chairman who shall then nominate, and with the approval of a majority of the members of the Local Government Legislative Council, appoint a new Vice-Chairman.”
Recall
“A member of a Local Government Legislative Council may be recalled if there is presented to the electoral body a petition on that behalf signed by more than one-half of the persons registered to vote in that member’s constituency alleging their loss of confidence in that member, and the petition is thereafter approved in a referendum conducted by the electoral body within 90 days of the date of the receipt of the petition.”
Asari Kerry, Technical Adviser to Bayelsa Governor, Duoye Diri has bared it all as they blow up pipelines.
It’s now glaring that the blowing up of pipelines are deliberate as he explained.
He equally confessed to being minority Ijaw ethnic nationality.
Watch clip below:
Elon Musk has revealed that he sold the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to his artificial intelligence company xAI in an all-stock transaction valued at $33 billion (€30.5 billion).
Musk acquired Twitter over two years ago before rebranding it as X.
Both companies remain privately held, exempting them from public financial disclosures. Musk shared on X that the “combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt).”
He elaborated, “Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at unprecedented speed and scale.
“X is the digital town square where more than 600M active users go to find the real-time source of ground truth and, in the last two years, has been transformed into one of the most efficient companies in the world, positioning it to deliver scalable future growth.”
Musk emphasised the interconnected futures of xAI and X, stating, “Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI’s advanced AI capability and expertise with X’s massive reach.”
He added, “The combined company will deliver smarter, more meaningful experiences to billions of people while staying true to our core mission of seeking truth and advancing knowledge.
“This will allow us to build a platform that doesn’t just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress.”
Musk, who also advises President Donald Trump in the unofficial DOGE department, initially purchased Twitter for $44 billion (€40 billion) in 2022. Following the acquisition, he implemented significant workforce reductions, altered policies on hate speech, misinformation, and user verification, and rebranded the platform as X.
A year later, Musk launched xAI. In December, he announced plans to expand the AI start-up’s supercomputer, ‘Colossus,’ to compete with rivals like OpenAI. This expansion involves increasing the number of GPUs to accelerate the development of new AI models.
The implications of this move for X users remain uncertain. Currently, xAI leverages data from X user posts to train its AI models, while paying X users have access to its AI chatbot, Grok.
@xAI has acquired @X in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt).
Since its founding two years ago, xAI has rapidly become one of the leading AI labs in the world, building models and data centers at.
President Bola Tinubu has revealed how he threatened to sack FCT minister, Nyesom Wike for demanding for exemption from TSA.
Tinubu made this revelation on Sunday when the minister led Abuja residents to him to mark Sallah.
Tinubu explained that freeing the FCT from TSA restrictions has swiftly catalysed infrastructure improvements, enhanced healthcare services, and increased security measures.
“I remember the day Nyesom Wike came to me and said, ‘please take us out of this problem of TSA so that I can do more work and achieve more’. I said show me what you are about to do, and he presented himself.
“And I threw him my own political jibe. I said will that give me any opportunity for my party to win election in the FCT? I said, I know where you are coming from, your own party or my party. But if this thing goes too much in your own favour, you will lose your job.
“He said, okay, we will settle that oga. And everything started changing rapidly. I started seeing the opening up of the rural areas by the FCT, the resuscitation of abandoned projects, and the completion of the Vice President’s official residence that was abandoned for years.
“The FCT rehabilitated health care centres, upgraded facilities for school children, and provided furniture,” Tinubu said.
The President thanked the FCT Minister for proving that liberation from the bureaucracy was necessary and for restructuring the FCT public service so that civil servants could aspire to higher positions and provide leadership.
“We wouldn’t have been able to open our mouths to celebrate if not because of the progressive ideas you brought to FCT. We can now celebrate the innovative ideas brought to the FCT,” President Tinubu said.
President Tinubu encouraged FCT residents and other Nigerians to look beyond ethnic and religious colourations in their leadership choices and focus more on results.
“Today, we live in peace, and security is improving. Hunger is coming down. Food prices are lowering. We can go to the market and do business. And our diversity and belief in ourselves are becoming stronger.
“We are not looking for magic. We are looking for results. We are looking for comfort. We are praying for good health. We are looking for someone who cares,” the President noted.
“The job is not just about Wike or me, but everyone. Nyesom Wike is proving the diversity of Nigeria. He strengthened that diversity to develop prosperity, showing us that we are all members of one family, living together in the same house, in different rooms, and under one roof,” the President said.
President Tinubu urged more tolerance, broadmindedness and patriotism.
“All I appeal for is tolerance, which has brought us this far. We have learnt some lessons from Ramadan. May the lessons continue to be with us,” he said.
The FCT minister thanked the President for hosting the residents in the State House.
“This visit marks a historic moment as it is the first time the FCT residents can extend our greetings and best wishes to you in person during this blessed period. We are genuinely delighted to be here”.
Wike pledged his loyalty to the President and committed himself to developing the capital city, assuring that the FCT would soon complete many projects.
“Despite our varied backgrounds, we are united in our unwavering support for your administration and the Renewed Hope Agenda,” he added.
The Vice President, Sen. Kashim Shettima, National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu and Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, attended the ceremony.
The FCT delegation included members of the National Assembly, judiciary, religious and traditional leaders, security chiefs and women and youth groups.
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