Trade Union Congress (TUC) says it stands with the Nigerian Senate’s move to abolish state/local government joint account and also calls on the House of Representatives and the Presidency to lend their support.
The labour group says it is backing the move because over the years, the local government administration had been rendered incapacitated by state governors who wield enormous influence on them.
Bobboi Kaigama, president, TUC, says the local councils suffer set back in infrastructural development because they are dictated to by the state governors who have control over the common purse.
“The joint account idea was a laudable one but its implementation has been faulty. Over the years, we have witnessed illegal deduction, delay in the release of funds and in some cases total diversion of local government statutory allocations by the state governors. This undue interference has become a clog on the wheel of development at the local government level.
“The idea of creating the local government was to bring governance closer to the people. Unfortunately, rather than being a vehicle that should drive rural development, the governors take advantage of it to make some unnecessary deductions thereby, denying the people at the grassroots basic amenities,” according to Kaigama.
The congress argues that granting financial autonomy to the local governments should be given priority attention by the legislature because of their role towards national economic development.
“This should not be taken for granted as it contributed about 12 percent to public expenditure before oil became the mainstream of revenue source to the federation. The councils are incapacitated to discharge their constitutional mandates and this is traceable to the unjust treatment meted to them by the state governments.
“We demand that this laudable recommendation by the Senate be urgently embraced. The state governments have so much money within their reach hence they are so much involved in the politics of do or die. Even with their security votes many governors still have nothing to show yet they cannot remove their eyes from local government funds. Further encroachment into the exclusive preserves of the local governments must stop now,” the TUC says.
