LG funds enough to address grassroots development – ALGON Secretary, Abubakar

The Secretary-General of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, Mohammed Abubakar, speaks with DANIEL AYANTOYE on the delay in the direct payment of federal allocation to local governments

How will you react to the delay in the direct payment of federal allocation to the local governments four months after the Supreme Court judgment?

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.

Was ALGON not carried along by the presidential committee set up for the implementation of the direct allocation payment?

The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees and ALGON had made their submissions that the LGs accounts should be opened across the 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 utilized 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. But in a situation where you don’t act but worry about some issues raised by the governors which included that they have incurred a lot of loans on behalf of the local government, 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.

What are your recommendations to the committee to resolve the issues raised by the governors?

One of them is that the governors should present the liabilities of the LGs in their various states. We have a consultant that will look into the differences, and the LGs debts to the state can be spread and reviewed when the direct allocation commences. You can’t continue to take the LGs money because of the claim that they are indebted to you. Let us know what their liabilities are and what the funds you borrowed in the name of local governments were used for. Is it to the benefit of the local government or whom? In that case, these things can be regularized. But it is wrong to say you want to pay on our behalf when we don’t know how much we owe you; and at the end of the day, you keep taking our money on the claim that you are clearing some loans that had been incurred on behalf of the local government.

Where are the loans, activities, and projects that were done on behalf of the local governments by the governors?

The consultant we appointed had been introduced to the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Attorney General. So, a thorough scrutiny will be carried out to that effect. This is a time to engage all stakeholders and provide solutions that can help both parties resolve these issues amicably. But the challenge is that you don’t listen to one side and work with the position they presented. What we have now is a one-sided presentation. Relying on the presentation of the governors to put this whole thing on hold is not doing us any good.

The governors have said that the LG allocations are not enough to take care of their workers. How can this be addressed?

The local government allocation can be managed to take care of this area. No LG gets less than N500m. Salary and other expenditures cannot take N300m. We have looked at it. How much are they to put in the health and education sectors at the local government? All these things have to be figured out. You don’t just outrightly say the money will not be enough. How do we know? Let us have the figure on expenditure on education and health workers. By so doing, we will know the liability to sort out from the allocation. That is why we put a consult in place to help us get across and have data. Let us have a proper analysis of what is causing this whole argument, and very soon, we will make that available to the public.

From your evaluation, is local government revenue adequate without state support?

To the best of our knowledge, it is. Many LG chairmen have told us that what the governors are saying is not true, but they will not be able to come out and say it openly. I have many chairmen who have told me in confidence that if their money comes in, they will have some money to do capital projects after making all necessary payments. There was a chairman who told me that his LG received N550m monthly but he usually got N5m at the end of the month. So, how do you spend my money and tell me it is not enough to take care of my responsibilities? Have you allowed me to utilize the money? What we are telling the government is to release the LG money to them and monitor it. If it is not enough, you can make projections, or go to the National Assembly to make further appropriations, and then you can increase the funds for the local government. We should bring an end to the delay if we are serious about the LG autonomy.

It was reported recently that the delay in the implementation of the LG autonomy is because the president has yet to approve the report submitted by the committee. Why do you think the president is delaying the approval after the committee submitted its report?

I doubt if such a report has been submitted to the president because the president is keen to see that this thing happens. And the attorney general, if you allow him, he can go as far as getting it started today. That is how keen the man is in making sure that the autonomy regime starts. The attorney general and the president are committed to this, so I don’t think the president will have that report and keep it aside. I don’t think anything has been presented to him. If you look at it, the person who mentioned that was the NULGE president, and I guess he needs to do a proper finding to ascertain that information. I don’t think it is correct.

Do you think the direct payment of allocation will bring the desired development to the local governments?

Very well, it will. I think that was the wisdom. The president had seen this from his vantage point of view. It will bring development and help also get the grassroots to start working again. What it means is that you are taking this money to the grassroots and the owners of the money. What we currently have is like you own your money and somebody above you says, ‘you don’t know how to spend it, I will help you to spend it.’ You are left with nothing at the end of the day. You can see the difference when this money starts getting to you directly. There will be a lot of difference and it will go a long way in opening up the grassroots and then allowing for the necessary benefit of the autonomy regime to cut across to the people at the grassroots level.

Some governors have argued that the local government chairmen would mismanage the funds when they have access to it. What is your take on that?

A local government chairman does not have immunity, and I think both the EFCC and the ICPC have all forewarned that any chairman who messes up with such funds will have themselves to blame. So, I guess we should not bother ourselves too much on that. If these agencies start taking them up, they will have themselves to blame. But let’s implement this action first by allowing the funds to get to them directly. There can be a mechanism to monitor and guide them right to see that these funds are not diverted.

If you listen to Senator Adams Oshiomhole when he was speaking on this issue, he said he preferred to have 774 thieves rather than just 36. The man has understood that when you have 774 with funds at hand, it would impact the local level because there is no way they will take it all. If you look at it now, local government administration is dead. They have a treasurer, director of administration, HOD of works, etc., but these offices are not working because the funds that were supposed to be utilized are not there. But if the money goes directly to the LG, the utilization would surely involve these departments. It will be difficult for a local government chairman to get an allocation and disappear with it. It is not possible. There is a Finance and General Purpose Committee saddled with finance responsibilities at the LG and is supposed to be meeting monthly. But they have not been able to meet because there is no money to work with.

How will you address the reported move by some governors to make sure that they still determine how the LG funds will be spent after direct allocation?

You can see what the Governor of Anambra State, Charles Soludo, did by getting the state assembly to put up a law that will enable each local government to have a different account for joint projects with the state. What they are saying is that ‘the Supreme Court has done its own, we as an entity, are going to carry out our own.’ So, passing this type of law has now become a norm. We are appealing to Mr. President to set up a monitoring team that may comprise the EFCC, ALGON, and others, to follow up on this money and ensure that it gets to them and is properly used and not diverted. This can be achieved through the Office of the Attorney General.

How do you ensure the efficiency of such a monitoring team with the passage of such laws by the state assemblies?

We have three tiers of government; it was stated in the constitution that every tier has its own funding. So, as a chairman, you have no reason to listen to any other person who tells you to bring your money. But if you give the money to someone else, you take responsibility because no one gave you that directive. Also, the attorney general has been singing it to their hearing that you are a tier of government with autonomy, and if you choose to take what belongs to you to any other person, you have yourself to blame when the agency that is saddled with the responsibility of knowing what you did with the money comes for you.

It is a reality that the governors have the chairmen under control and anyone of them who flouted the governor’s order on the LG funds will be dealt with, like we have in the case of Ogun State Government and former chairman of Ijebu East, Wale Adedayo. How can this be handled?

Did you think many of those governors who emerged today did not secure the presidential support before their emergence? A lot of them got the president to endorse them and after that, they stood their ground and said ‘you can’t dare touch my money.’ They will make the president understand that it is the constitution that empowers them to use their money the way they want. So, if you are supported into office as a chairman by a governor and you are in that office constitutionally, then you should stand your ground. The Supreme Court has also insisted that no governor can impeach or remove any elected local government chairman. The LG chairmen should be aware that they are working with the powers that the constitution gives them, not the power that the governor gave them. I think people at the local government level should also begin to build the confidence and integrity that the office requires. It should not be because you want to come for a second tenure and you won’t be able to stand your ground. I think posterity will testify that you stood your ground and did the right thing that must be done. Unfortunately, some of these chairmen cannot just be courageous. If you look at the judgment of the Supreme Court, it is spelled out clearly, that for no reason should the state tamper with the LG money. The state is supposed to hold it in trust for the local government. It is a kind of transit agent because they wouldn’t want to gather the 774 in Abuja to pick up their cheque, which was what we were used to in the past.

What is your take on the move that INEC should be conducting local government elections and not the state electoral commission?

It was INEC that conducted the 1999 local government elections, along with that of the governors when we returned to democracy. The problem was that those governors encountered some challenges trying to access local government funds. Because those chairmen were elected by the same body that elected the governor, it was difficult for the governors to control them. So, when the 1999 constitution review was ongoing, the governors quickly inserted this joint account thing to subject local governments under their control. I could remember that my local government chairman then and the governor were in different parties. The governor took advantage of the constitution review in 1999 to insert clauses that gave them power and authority over the local government. So, if we can go back to that tenure of allowing INEC to conduct the elections, it will shape things.