3rd June, 2015
Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta
Governor Ibikunle Amosun has declared his support for local government autonomy promised by President Muhammed Buhari in his inaugural address last week, adding that, “any governor that is opposing it must be benefitting from his state-local government joint account”.
The governor affirmed that there is nothing tempting to attract anyone towards the local government funds, hinting that, money coming from the federal allocation is no longer enough as expected.
Amosun stated this while speaking to journalists on Monday, his first day in office after his tour of ministries and parastatals within the governor’s office in Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.
“I support President Muhammed Buhari on this local government autonomy. We are creating Local Council Development Authority, LCDA, and we are waiting for the new State House of Assembly to be inaugurated because this outgoing Assembly members could not have completed it, if they had opened discussion on it.
“By July all local government council Chairmen will be completing their three-year tenure in office and we are going to conduct local government elections and creation of the LCDA’s, that is what we want to do.
“The autonomy issues is in my interest, some governors said that granting autonomy to local governments is not going to favour them. Those governors that the autonomy thing will not favour are those governors that deduct from local government allocation which they receive from the federal allocation.
“There is no money,for me,this development will even put more challenge on the local governments and local council development authority. If they want the autonomy,let them take their autonomy.
“If they can’t pay salaries, they won’t come back to me. If they can’t pay teachers or embark on developmental projects,they know that they are the ones that cannot py and not the state.
“Our traditional rulers are there when they are having their JAAC meeting. For me, I want them to have the autonomy, even, as I speak now, the allocation from the federal account is grossly inadequate,” Amosun explained.