TWENTY-THREE states -- Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Ondo, Osun, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara -- voted against local government financial autonomy. Their votes meant the required two-third majority required to change the law was not met.

Abia, Adamawa, Anambra, Benue, Ebonyi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau states, cast their 13 votes for the financial autonomy of local government administrations. They lost the fight for the development of the third tier of government, which the Constitution so recognised.

The National Assembly in October 2014, transmitted to the State Houses of Assembly, 23 items it had amended in the Constitution. There is a constitutional requirement of two-third concurrence of the 36 States Houses of Assembly for the amendments to sail through.

Proposals, including financial autonomy for State Houses of Assembly, separation of the office of Attorneys-General from Minister or Commissioner of Justice, passed, but not autonomy for local governments that would have deepened democracy at that level.

"I am happy to inform you all that with these resolutions of ours we are transmitting to the National Assembly, we have stood on the side of the people and acted to further deepen democracy in our country," Samuel Ikon, Chairman, Conference of Speakers, on the items that the State Assemblies approved. Was he mocking Nigerians?

The excuses for not approving local government autonomy ranged from complaints from the Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, and Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, who feared that their salaries would not be paid timely.

General Secretary of NULGE, Joshua Irapakop, elsewhere advised his NULGE members to vote out governments that did not support local government autonomy. According to him, the absence of autonomy was killing democracy at the local government level.

The action of the legislators dismissed the work that was done on the amendments, particularly from the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review, which sought the view of the public, on the amendments, in town hall meetings held in the 774 local government areas. It was the most profound effort at involving the people in legislation. The State Houses of Assembly received a distillation of those views.

Local government autonomy was one of the issues people supported. Their reasons included that it could attract more qualified individuals to local government administrations and help growth of governance at points closest to the people. The people's representatives in State Assemblies rejected them.

The decision keeps local governments as appendages of state governments to be illegally dissolved or denied their allocations from the federation account; the very reason people want the autonomy.