By Okungbowa Aiwerie, Asaba

Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has called for a review of the current revenue allocation formula in favour of states and local governments.

He said a review became imperative to reflect the current socio-economic realities in the country.

The governor spoke on Thursday when he hosted the National Executive Council (NEC) members of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), led by their National President, Mr. Kolade Alabi, in Asaba, the state capital.

The governor said states currently face huge financial responsibilities, same with local governments.

He said the local government administration was growing and that “it is our hope that we get them stabilised financially so that they can impact on the lives of our people”.

Okowa added: “I believe that local government administration must be autonomous. Here in Delta State, we have never tampered with their funds. Rather, we assist them and provide bailout funds for them on a monthly basis to augment their payment of salaries.

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“We have generally as a nation made local government administration take up serious responsibilities, like payment of their workers and primary school teachers’ salaries without providing the necessary funds for them.

“We need to have a re-work of the revenue allocation formula because none of the arms of government should shy away from that.

“We need to be able to provide funding so that they can reach out to the people and the people will feel their impact.

“The Federal Government is an important tier of government but they can’t perform well in terms of reaching out to the various communities because of the issues of monitoring and evaluation.

“There is a need to rework the laws of this nation in such a way that we are able to redirect governance the way it ought to be done.”

Alabi said the group was in Delta State for its NEC meeting and that it chose the state in recognition of its sterling accomplishments of the governor in local government administration.