By Doris Isreal Ijeoma
Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, has expressed concern over Thursday’s Supreme Court judgment affirming local governments’ right to receive monthly allocations directly from the federation account.
The chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party emphasised that despite the court judgment, state Houses of Assembly and the governors will always be a clog in the wheel of local government autonomy.
Fayose said this when he featured as a guest on Sunday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.
While stressing that nobody from the grassroots can emerge as a local government chairman without the support of a governor, the Ekiti politician said both the court and FG ‘cannot take the baby from the mother.’
He said, “I am not a lawyer. I am a politician and by God’s grace today, I am an elder statesman. While I love and do not believe that any government should take local government funds, may I say to you very clearly this evening that you cannot take the baby from the mother? There is nobody that can become council chairman without a governor. Anybody telling you otherwise is wasting his time.
“Let me quickly remind you that the House of Assembly of every state controls the activities and checkmates the activities of the local government. While I was governor, I had the privilege of receiving money from Abuja. When you receive money from the account, some people manage the account. They are not politicians or the council chairman.
“There is only one representative of the governor, which is the local government commissioner. All others are local government officials, workers, and pensioners of the council. And they appropriate the funds. But when you now come and say we are giving power to the local government, what power are you giving to them? No power.”
Continuing, the PDP chieftain said aside from the state lawmakers frustrating the process, most council officials don’t take their work seriously.
According to him, many workers don’t bother to come to work on certain days of the week.
“Any council chairman who says ‘Money is coming to me, I will disrespect my governor’ the House of Assembly will tell you to go and disobey him inside your house. This is because you can never even be a council chairman without the governor standing up for you. The House of Assembly regulates your activities.
“Go to the council meeting on Wednesday or Friday, you will not find 10 per cent of the staff of the local government in the office. They don’t come. My name is Ayo Fayose and I want them to dispute this. They don’t come to work. When you make moves to bring them to book, both NULGE and all leaders of the local government will go and beg the governor.
“They will be telling you, we will not vote for you. This is the way we operate at the local government. The state is more effective in administrative performance than the local government. At the local government, everybody comes to collect money. Even people have left some states. They live somewhere else and money just hit their accounts,” he added.
