by fabulous reports
….Govs to meet over Supreme Court judgement on LG autonomy
The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) has described Thursday’s Supreme Court’s judgment granting financial autonomy to local governments as a relief from the financial burden to state governments.
The chairman of the NGF and governor of Kwara state, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who expressed this position on behalf of his colleagues while speaking to journalists at the State House on Friday, July 12, however, welcomed the judgment, assuring of compliance by state governments.
AbdulRazaq, who was flanked by the governors of Imo, Hope Uzodinma, and Bauchi, Bala Mohammed, stated that the ruling is a devolution of power that relieves governors of the significant financial burden of bailing out local governments, an expense that he noted many Nigerians are unaware of.
While acknowledging the need for compliance, the NGF Chairman revealed that state attorney generals have applied for the enrollment order, which will be carefully studied.
“We welcome the ruling of the Supreme Court, compliance is a given and our Attorney-Generals have applied for the enrollment order, which we’ll study carefully.
“But by and large, governors are happy with the devolution of power with respect to local government autonomy. It relieves the burden on governors. Our people really don’t know how much states expense in bailing out local governments, and that’s the issue there.
“The forum will meet next Wednesday, to look at the issue wholly and then come up with a resolution on that.
“Like I said, we haven’t seen the enrollment of the court order and so we really don’t know what is in there,” he stated.
As for Kwara State in particular, AbdulRahman said the judgment will not negatively affect it as the state government has not been tampering with council funds.
“It’s not going to affect the state we’ve never tampered with local government funds. So it’s going to continue.
“What the local governments have to do is to manage themselves, especially with the oncoming minimum wage, to manage their affairs and make sure salaries are paid, traditional rulers get their 5% and those are the main issues,” he said.
Asked for the reason for their visit to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the NGF Boss disclosed that they were in the house to discuss various issues with the President.
“We’ve seen the President on various issues from minimum wage, which he met with labour yesterday, the Supreme Court ruling, and other national issues that concern states as well. It’s omnibus”, he said.
