The Association of the Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, and National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, have expressed concern over the delay in the implementation of the Supreme Court judgement on local government autonomy.
The Secretary-General of ALGON, Mohammed Abubakar, while speaking on the delay in the direct payment of federal allocation to local governments, lamented the non-implementation of the Supreme Court ruling.
Abubakar said: “Sincerely, we are all in the dark as we stand now. People who don’t want this LG autonomy to work are having a field day. Ordinarily, the Supreme Court judgment should not be left unattended.
“We are in the dark, to the extent that we cannot pinpoint what the government is trying to achieve by not enforcing the Supreme Court judgment allowing allocation to be paid directly to local government accounts.
“The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees and ALGON had made their submissions that the LGs accounts should be opened across board and submitted to the Office of The Accountant-General for the allocation to be disbursed directly.
“But the governors are claiming that they already utilised funds for the interest of the local governments. They also argued that the local governments’ money is not enough to take care of all the health and the primary school teachers. But we are saying they should allow the implementation first, then we can make a case for whatever deficiencies we have.
“In a situation where you don’t act but worry about some issues raised by the governors, which include that they have incurred a lot of loans on behalf of the local governments, then we may not have a way forward.
“So, these are the bottlenecks that we understand are causing these delays, but again there can be a way out of these issues and we have proffered some solutions to the committee. It is best known to the committee why it has not carried out the advice we gave to them.”
Also, the Ogun State Chairman of NULGE, Bayo Adefesobi, on Monday blamed the Federal Government for the non-implementation of the court judgment.
“We have not seen the implementation of LG autonomy in Ogun State just as it is across the country. The blame for the non-implementation should go to the Federal Government that made the pronouncement but refused to follow up on its decision.
“Once the Federal Government pays the allocation into the respective accounts of the local governments, the chairmen will access the funds and use them for grassroots development. So, we all await the Federal Government to do the needful.” (The PUNCH)
