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| 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
.
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.
