H.E. President Goodluck Jonathan

LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORMS: PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN, FRANK UKONGA, SANUSI LAMIDO SLAM GOVERNORS

President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, declared his readiness to fight for full autonomy for the local councils, saying no meaningful development could be achieved in the country if the councils were not vibrant and not allowed to function.
He spoke on the second day of the 13th annual extra-ordinary general assembly and national conference with the theme "Rediscovering the Nigerian local government system in the emerging constitution" organised by the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, in Enugu.
The President, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Political Affairs, Ahmed Gulak, said since the councils were the closest tier of government to the people, the rising wave of insecurity in the country would have been reduced if they were functioning well.
He also expressed his opposition to the state/local government joint account, noting that the councils have a special role to play in his transformation agenda, which they were not doing currently. He also wondered if the local government councils were getting their share of the subsidy fund.

President Goodluck Jonathan berates govs:
Jonathan's support for the local councils is coming against the background of the continuing efforts by governors through the aegis of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, to dislocate the councils from being recognised as federating units like the states.
NGF chairman, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, had earlier this week told a delegation of the House of Representatives Committee on Youths and Social Development that the governors would oppose suggestions to give the councils autonomy from the states and make them part of the federating units.
According to Jonathan, "vibrancy in the local governments means the constitution is functioning. Tenure of local governments depends on the whims and caprices of the state governors. That should not be so. The tenure of our local governments, whether three or four years, should be clearly defined in the Constitution.
"The President has no right to wake up and say he has dissolved a state government. So why must a state governor dissolve a council? Why are we following the constitution in breach? We must live up to our duty and expectation of upholding and defending the constitution.
"The President is 100 per cent in support of ALGON because the Local Government is the closest tier of government to the people.
He is in support of Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, which says that at every given time the local government must be democratically elected. The situation where some governors dissolve local governments is unconstitutional, illegal and unsustainable

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Prince Frank Ukonga in his monthly State of the Union lectures offered the following observations

 

FRANK UKONGA BLAST GOVERNORS: As the saying goes that absolute powers corrupt absolutely, that phenomenon has manifested in the Nigerian case study were the governors dissolves the elected Local Government leadership and take over all the 774 local governments in the federation, take over their financial allocations, taxes, counterpart funding and refuse to conduct Local Government elections, but instead ruling the Local Governments with appointed administrators , most of whom are party loyalist and their friends and relations turning the entire process of Local government into irrelevance in the schemes of things. Little wonder therefore is the portable contributions of the Local governments’ structure to the advancement and development of the polity, acute corruption and trivialization of local Governing concept.

This usurpation of the duties, powers, finances and functions of the Local Governments by the state governors goes contrary to constitutional setting of the three tier of governance structure and the relevance of each structure. It is like saying for example that the federal Government should usurp the powers of the state governors and makes the governors increasing irrelevant in the schemes of things. Nigerians and peoples of goodwill the world over will not like that concept were the FG usurps the powers , finances and functions of the state governors, it becomes consequential that the state governors' usurping the duties, rights , functions and finances of the Local Government Chairmen is dialectically and historically wrong and constitutionally an aberration and that something quick and strong must be done to strengthen the Local Governments to it proper constitutional status were it can adequately wake up to the responsibilities of service delivery to the electorate

H.E. SANUSI LAMIDO BLAST GOVERNORS, SENATORS, ETAL

 

H.E. Sanusi Lamido Governor of CBN blasted the Governors , Senators and LG structures saying that the cost of governance is too high in Nigeria. He said about 70% of Nigerian income is being spent on recurrent expenditures to pay salaries and overheads leaving a pastry sum of 30 % to capital expenditure and the future which he said is abysmal and recommended a pruning down of government spending. Earlier in 2012 he had said that about 25% of Nigerian income is being used by the senate and the House of Representatives to make laws which is really on the high side. He also blasted on the bloated expensive life style of the Nigerian Governors and observed that most states are not financially viable.