Months After Supreme Court Verdict, Much Ado with LG Allocations
The Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON, has lamented that the 23 percent allocation from the monthly federation account to local government is very paltry bearing in mind that a good number of the citizens are at the grassroots.
ALGON also said that it was yet to receive allocation directly from the federal allocation and expressed optimism that direct allocation to council areas would come beginning from this month.
But it raised concerns that the issue of Joint Allocation Committee (JAC) is still in the constitution and called for an amendment and its immediate removal from the constitution.
Chairman of ALGON in Plateau State and National Publicity Secretary of the association, Hon. Hamisu Anani, disclosed this in an interview with Vanguard in Abuja.
Honourable Anani, who is also the local government chairman of Wase council area of Plateau State, frowned at the arbitrary removal of democratically elected local government chairmen by governors.
Fielding questions on the issue of financial autonomy for local government areas and whether they have started receiving their monthly allocation from the federation account directly based on the supreme court judgement, Hon. Anani said the councils are yet to receive allocation directly from the federal purse.
On whether the association was making any efforts for the implementation of the apex court judgement on the matter, he said it was the responsibility of the Accountant General of the Federation the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and other relevant bodies to ensure the implementation of the judgement.
According to him, “there are committees working seriously on these issues. There are ‘Ts’ to be crossed and ‘i’s’ to be dotted, to ensure that this thing is done. And I think the committees have finished their work. So we’re just waiting for the implementation of this right away.
“And also, it is the wish of everybody, the masses, the wish of the chairmen, the wish of the governors, and also the wish of the federal government, the president, specifically to see that financial autonomy for the local government councils is implemented because everybody in government wishes to see that the dividends of democracy, touch down to the grassroots.
“The reason is that, at the state level, there are so many organizations that are funded by the local government. Primary healthcare is funded by the local government, (the Universal Basic Education Commission) UBEC is funded by the local government. There are first line charges within the states that are funded by the local government.”
Asked to be specific on whether local government areas have started receiving allocation directly, he said, “No local government has started receiving allocation directly.”
Further asked how soon they were expecting to receive their allocation directly, he said: “We are expecting it possibly this month, as they said. The committees have done their work. They finished everything and then submitted it. So definitely, the implementation will soon start.”
On the position of ALGON to the removal of elected local government chairmen by state governors, he said such trend has become an ugly trend that repeats itself every time.
He said: “We have to look at it very well because it is a constitutional issue, it needs to be looked into very well.
“And the ruling of the Supreme Court mentioned specifically on major three things, local government Chairman cannot just go like that, as the governor just announced that you should go as it was before, it’s a constitutional matter. And if you do well, the councilors don’t have any point for them to impeach you.
“There are other things that need to be looked into in the constitution. JAC is a constitutional matter it is still there in the constitution, it needs to be reviewed.”
Also responding to the advantage of local government areas getting their allocations directly from the federal accounts, he said:
“It’s a great and huge advantage to the people down there at the grassroots, because, definitely, there’s going to be real development down there.
“And also we at the local government level cry out loud over the sharing formula. The sharing formula of revenue is still another thing. If really the government at the grassroots level need development, we can’t be obtaining just 23% for 774 local government areas, as against 40 something percent for the federal government.
“So, the development should come from the grassroots, and then the sharing formula should be increased, we are soliciting for it to be looked into in the interest of development at the grassroots.”
The ALGON Publicity Secretary said about six states are yet to conduct local government elections even as he claimed that Plateau State had one of the most credible and transparent local government elections in the country.
“Actually, we have over 30 states that have conducted their elections successfully, of which, in our NEC meeting in Katsina last month, we urged the states that are yet to conduct elections to do so.
“As ALGON, we gave them specific advice on how to conduct election as it is supposed to be, as declared by the supreme court judgment.
“We have less than six states that are yet to comply of which I cannot get the names directly now, maybe I can let you know later the states that are yet to comply.”
Read Also: Nigeria’s 774 LGAs Set to Open Accounts with CBN to Facilitate Direct Transfer of Allocations