Findings by *Sunday PUNCH* show say some governors for Nigeria don devise means to continue cornering council funds through secret oath-taking deals and agreements with elected chairmen. Dis happen despite the Supreme Court granting financial autonomy to the 774 local governments on July 11, and directing the Accountant-General of the Federation to pay allocations directly to their accounts.
After the Supreme Court judgment, state governors ask for a three-month moratorium before the commencement of direct allocation to the LGs to enable them conduct elections. But, some chairmen reveal say dem pledge allegiance to their governors before dem could become candidates or get elected. One council chairman talk say, “After the Supreme Court judgment, we meet the governor and pledge our allegiance to him. We tell him we would always abide by his directive on our LG funds. I cannot say we did that voluntarily; something propel us to do it. Maybe I wouldn’t be the local government chairman now if I didn’t pledge because that was before our election.”
A senior media officer in one of the states also confirm say part of the agreement the chairmen had with the governor was continuous remittance of their funds to a dedicated state account. “I am privy to their arrangement. The chairmen were asked to pledge allegiance that they would continue to remit money to the state when the direct allocation commences. The only grace they have with the arrangement on ground now is that after payment of teachers and other workers, the chairmen will take N5m as security vote; the vice chairman and other principal officers will also have their running costs, while N10m will be set aside for the running of the local government. The rest of the allocation will then be sent to the state”, he added.
A local government chairmanship candidate in one of the southern states also talk say he and his colleagues take an oath to follow their governor’s directive on LG funds before dem were cleared to be the candidates of the party. “We are to follow the governor’s directive on local government funds; that was our pledge, and I don’t think it is bad,” he stated.
A political analyst in Sokoto State, Abdul AbdulKareem, say Nigerians should not expect anything special from the chairmen. “Why will you be deceiving yourself to ask such things from them; no one among them will admit to such questions. The only thing we know is none of them can do anything without instructions either from the governor or the leader of the party in the state. They were all appointed into that place for a purpose and can’t go contrary to that,” he added.
A former local government chairman in Ogun State, Wale Adedayo, urge chairmen to resist every attempt by governors to arm-twist them to remit their allocations back to states. Adedayo, who was removed as the chairman of Ijebu East LG, advise say, “Chairmen should resist every attempt by governors to arm-twist them to remit their allocations back to states.”
