Governors Frustrating Local Government Autonomy – Senate Leader.

The Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume has said some State Governors who are out to control the Joint Account, were blocking efforts to achieve autonomy for local government administration in the country.

Ali Ndume

Ndume, Senator representing Borno South in an interview with selected reporters, said some Governors were insistent that local government administration should be under the administration of state government.

“The National Assembly’s disposition on the local government autonomy should be clearly understood. I’ve been a member of the National Assembly committee on constitutional review three times. Consecutively, I was a member in the 6th assembly, 7th and now I am also a member in the 8th assembly.

“We proposed the independence of the local government administration in the 6th and 7th assemblies but the proposal did not fly. We’re trying again in the 8th assembly and I just hope it will fly this time around.

“The decision is actually coming from the state level. The state governors are in control and some people just believe the state governments should be in control of the local governments. But I am one of those who believe in the independence of the local governments completely though not everybody can speak the way I do on the matter.

“Governors are very powerful in this case and most of them want to be in control and will do everything possible to ensure their position is maintained on the matter while some don’t really care.

“Joint account is the problem and it is the main reason why some of these governors won’t want autonomy for the local government. It is being abused in some states but aside from that, other states including FCT have no problem with the Joint Account thing.

“For example, in FCT where there is a minister with four municipals, their monies are paid to them as soon as allocation is ready. This is how it should be done; but a situation where you have about 500 local governments under caretakers, is a big problem and not healthy for our democracy and development.”