Senator decries misuse of states, local government joint account

Senator Yahayya Abdullahi of Kebbi North Senatorial District has decried the misuse of state and local governments joint account by some governors in the country.
In a paper to mark the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Kebbi State in Birnin Kebbi on Saturday, Abdullahi said the state and local governments joint account had been misused and not operated in accordance with the spirit and letter of the law.
He said most governors were guilty of hijacking local government funds.
He said lack of adherence to the laws and rules manifested its consequences in the management of local governments and their finances.
Abdullahi lamented the collapse of the local governments as the third tier of government, saying that the incidences of fake or ghost schools, ghost teachers and ghost pupils abounded.
Abdullahi said: “To make matters even worse, some governors are in contempt of the law governing the disbursement of funds accruing to the local governments from the federation account and from state’s internally generated revenues.”
The senator said that any system of governance that was not based on the foundations of truth, discipline and justice would fail because it corrupted the whole society.
Abdullahi also urged the Kebbi government to invest on human development as the unemployment and underemployment of youths from 20 to 45 year age bracket were indications that the state had not been investing in people.
Responding, Governor Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, who disagreed with the senator on the misuse of the joint account, acknowledged the failure in the local government system.
Bagudu said many local governments could not undertake any meaningful project due to the high number of workers they employed.
The governor said: “When we came into power, we ensured that local governments did what they should do with the revenue allocation, but what we found out later was shocking, as some of them after disbursement of salary to their workers were left with nothing.
“Aliero local government alone has more than 1,000 workers while there are some local governments with more than 3,000.”
Bagudu called for the stakeholders’ involvement to solve the problems of the civil service in the state.
Kebbi was created out of the former Sokoto State on August 27, 1991.
The state has a population of 3,137,989 people as projected from the 1991 census, with 21 local government areas.