FG urged to rescue LGAs from state govt

THE Federal Government has been urged to rescue local government authorities from state government, especially in the South-South region of the country, to enable them provide essential services to people at the grass roots.

Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, made the call while featuring on the Federal Radio Corporation network service programme, ‘Issues of the Moment’ in Abuja.

Speaking on the theme: ‘2020 and the Politics of Development in Nigeria’, Senator Enang noted that the local government area exits these days only to pay salaries, adding that their chairmen are only seen during monetary allocation by the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

He said: “Most local government secretariats have been taken over by weeds while most of  primary healthcare centres do not function. Nurses stay at home but collect salaries for doing nothing because governance at that level has collapsed.

“When we talk about politics and development, it has to progress from the grass roots; every tier of government is involved because when the Federal Government sharies money, they share to federal, state and local government areas.

“Government at the local level has been kidnapped, arrested, imprisoned and bastardised by the governors, supported by the Houses of Assembly.

“The Supreme Court has done its best to redeem the local government areas in view of its past judgments. Unfortunately, the governors still behave as if they are law unto themselves.”

Speaking further, he said that local government administration is doing better in the northern and western parts of the country where they do not have oil money, adding that governance is worse in the Niger Delta areas where there is oil money.

He noted that governors have not been responsive to development considering the amount of money that goes to each state of the federation, especially in the South-South region.

“Let the governors know that they will be made to stand trial in accordance with extant laws when their immunity is eventually lifted,” he said.

He called on the accountant-general of the federation and the attorney-general of the federation to monitor the spending of  allocated funds to the states so as to rescue local government areas.