The Director Finance, Hadejia Jama’are River Basin Development Authority, Dr. Musa Illiyasu Kwankwaso, has aligned himself with the position of President Bola Tinubu on his directives for Governors to immediately allow local governments to enjoy their financial autonomy.
In a statement on Monday in Kano , Illiyasu Kwankwaso described the decision by President Tinubu to invoke executive order to stop governors from diverting LGs funds as timely.
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Kwankwaso who served as chairman of Madobi Local Government for two consecutive terms during the administration of former Kano governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, said by the directives, President Tinubu really meant well for downtrodden masses of the country.
“I really cherished the position taken by President Tinubu as a statesmanly, because the President truly means well for the masses of this country.
He said, “President Tinubu understands the problem of LGCs and the way to quickly solve it, which is indeed the local governments financial autonomy.
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According to him, if local governments are getting their money directly, they could provide the much needed dividends of democracy at the grassroots level through the provision of infrastructure such as roads, hospitals, water etc.
“if Local Governments are getting their money directly, they can execute projects at their levels which in earnest would empower their people, they can build hospitals, schools and even provide adequate security to their communities”.
He recalled that when he was a council chairman about 20 years ago, he getting only N30 million monthly allocation and was able to pay salaries and executed a number of developmental projects.
“When I was chairman of Madobi some 20 years ago, I was getting only N30 million monthly and with that money I paid salaries with N9 million while I spent the balance on the execusion of projects that are still standing at the council,” he said.
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He said today the same Madobi LG is receiving over N1 billion even though being managed by the state, but you can’t see any concrete projects on ground because they are not being given chance to use the money and probably even if they have the money the tendencies of not doing what they supposed to do will not be there.
He therefore reminded governors that the local governments financial autonomy is not warranted by President Tinubu but a Supreme Court Judgement, stressing that they should respect that Judgement to show that they respect the laws of the land.
