The Kaduna State House of Assembly on Wednesday annulled the 2021 laws that established the Zaria Metropolitan Authority, Kafanchan Municipal Authority, and the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority.
This repealing comes after the local government, the third arm of government was granted autonomy from the state legislation.
The Speaker of the house, Dahiru Liman, passed the bill to repeal the law after the Chairman of the Joint Committee on the three authorities’ law and judicial law presented a report to the house.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the presented report to repeal the bill were presented by Mahmud Lawal for Zaria; Ali Kalat for Kafanchan; and Auwal Muhammad for Kaduna Capital Territory Authorities.
Mahmud Lawal, a member representing Zaria City Constituency and the chairman of the joint committee of Zaria Metropolitan Authority and judiciary, who spoke after the session said the repeal was necessary and timely. He also commented on the metropolitan authorities performing same functions of the Local Government.
“With the recent judgement by the Supreme Court and going through the provisions of our constitution, which stipulated the functions of local governments in Nigeria. We come to realise that the existence of the metropolitan authorities is not possible if we go by the functions of the local governments.
“Most of the activities of the metropolitan authorities by the law is supposed to be carried out by the local government functions,” he said.
Mr Lawal stated that the law to repeal the authorities would enable the Local Government Authorities to perform their duties effectively since they have gained autonomy.
The Local Government Authorities were created in 2021 by the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai. The establishment of these metropolitan authorities were initially argued against but the then government likened the new creations to the local council development authorities created in 1999 by the Then Governor of Lagos state, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The metropolitan authorities were created, and the administrators nominated by the president. The granting of autonomy to the local government has now dismantled the establishment of the previous government.
