The Nation Newspaper

Tag: LGAs

  • Progressive LGAs: cooperate with institutions

    Progressive LGAs: cooperate with institutions

    While many LGAs are facing terrorist-led war-like destruction, others have new life because of two great things. One is the Supreme Court judgement reiterating the constitutionally guaranteed financial independence of the LGAs from the state governments in terms of direct allocations from the federal government. The second reason is the dedication of some LGA chairmen who service the needs of their LGAs for inner roads, Primary Health Care, primary schools and markets, some LGA chairmen are building LGA estates and providing small scale business support. Hurray!

    Of course, there are some LGA chairmen who will continue the old bad ways and just call party, political and traditional rulers to merely divide the citizens’ budget among themselves, effectively stealing development money. This disgusting action by elected officials deprives LGA populations of normal LGA-led development even though the money is there. This is outright common theft.

    We must call theft stealing and not politically palatable names like corruption, fraud, padding, misappropriation, inflation of contracts, diversion or round-tripping.

    Such criminally minded thieving LGA chairmen and their councils require regular forensic audit to stop the stealing in the bud -before N1million is missing, not when N1billion is long gone. Our citizens can no longer afford the situation where many more millions are stolen from 2025 LGAs only to be ‘revealed but not retrieved by ICPC or EFCC years after the criminal chairmen have left office and corruptly used the stolen money to illegally further ‘water the road’ of their political ambition.

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    We must catch, try and punish any criminal LGA chairmen while in power. These same wayward thieving politicians will demand that the market thieves in their LGAs are jailed.

    On the political front such wayward money-grabbing politicians need to be reminded that every project completed at LGA reduces the financial and political burden on state and federal government- exactly why the LGAs were created. The citizens need to refocus their very valuable and voluble political and financial management criticism for good governance and demonstrable financial honesty in their LGAs.

    Now there is much more money to spend at LGA level, in most LGAs at least, Nigerians and monitoring bodies need LGA based websites and citizen feedback social media, not in conflict or political opposition but in a cumulative information and action synergy, to achieve what is good for the citizenry and monitor the achievement of SDGs. 

    The vast majority of the Nigerian population lives and work in one or two LGAs. That is all they will ever see of Nigeria, and they make up their minds about every level of governance through the goings on in their limited domain. Abuja and state upheavals are WhatsApp oddities. The states of affairs in those LGAs are the focus and limit of their knowledge. Also, there is a limit to the knowledge input by staff of most LGAs which lack the engineering, architectural, administrative and technical skills to make the ‘Grand 4 or 8-year Plan for XYZ LGA SDGs’.

    Fortunately, but sadly, Nigeria is blessed with an untapped civilian army of professionally knowledgeable dedicated serving and retired -but not tired of their country- Nigerian citizens, men and women, seeking only development, who live in or are connected by family to every LGA. Forward-looking LGA chairmen should mobilise such ‘LGA Senior Citizen Think Tanks’, or the retirees should visit the LGA chairman. Their meetings should identify the top 10, 20, 30 projects which the LGA chairman would not have thought of. For example, there are many badly built or decaying bridges which could cut travel time and improve travel safety and open up new areas, if they are rebuilt, upgraded and maintained.

    Many LGAs are blessed with untapped incalculable wealth as they host, ignored or even harassed, institutions like universities, polytechnics and other tertiary schools, teaching hospitals and research institutes. Sadly, many such centres of knowledge -if not excellence- uniformly have absolutely zero consultation, interaction or impact on the host LGA, starting at the institution’s gate.

     Many years ago, I sat briefly on an intellectual committee set us by LGA chairman, Bayo Beckley. Late Professor Shridar from the University of Ibadan set up a waste management project in Bodija market – a gateway but daily time-consuming traffic bottleneck to the University of Ibadan and NISER-Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, both prestigious and iconic intellectual flagships whose staff get regularly stuck in Bodija market traffic.

    Even with the just concluded widening, reconstruction and super-upgrade of the Bodija market road, the market population still manages to fight change and shrink the road to one-and-a-half usable lanes by spreading tomatoes et cetera on the costly second lane wasting the valuable upgrade. Tomatoes on very expensive market real estate!!

    Yet the NISER, which has a transport development focus unit and brain-packed UI, could cooperate with government to address the embarrassing and needless problem of access to those VIP institutions through the Bodija market. Problem – markets and junctions everywhere cannot accommodate all traders or all okada or keke seeking a spot. Solution: Supervise, set and enforce roadside, market trader and junction okada and keke numbers; keep market traders off the new multi-billion expensive two lanes asphalt road up to 6.30pm daily. Let LGA chairman, UI and NISER and state government meet to create an exemplary off lane third lane for parking. Enforce decisions.

    Cooperation on mundane problems is the key to LGA citizen happiness with all government branches.    

  • Kano bails out LGAs with N1.2bn to pay salaries

    The Kano State Government has allocated N1.2 billion from its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the 44 Local Government Areas in the state to augment their federal allocations, as bailout for payment of workers’ June salary.

    The state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, disclosed that the move became necessary as the dwindling monthly allocation to the councils from the Federation Account is currently insufficient to pay salaries, let alone tackle development issues.

    At a Ramadan Iftar on Wednesday with management of tertiary educational institutions in the state, also attended by his Kogi State counterpart, Alhaji Yahya Bello, the Kano State governor explained that the only option left for states is to intensify the generation of Internally Generated Revenue, so as to survive the current economic realities.

    He recalled that during the immediate past administration, the state government used to have a balance of between 4 and 5 billion naira after the payment of monthly salaries, pointing out that with the current dwindling capital receipts from the federal government, his government is constrained to look inwards.

    To closely coordinate its earning and expenditure, therefore, Ganduje asserted that the Single Treasury Account is indispensable for his government, noting that although it would affect tertiary institutions in the state, it would not put them in a disadvantaged position. “Whenever you collect your revenues, declare them. We will then release the money to you for your day-to-day activities,” said the governor.

  • 11 LGAs Sole Administrators named in Nasarawa

    Gov. Umaru Al-Makura of Nasarawa State has approved the appointment of Sole Administrators in 11 out of the 13 local government areas in the state.

    This is contained in a statement signed by Aliyu Tijani-Ahmed, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and made available to journalists on Saturday in Lafia.

    According to the statement, the appointment followed the expiration of the tenure of office of the 11 local government chairmen on March 24, 2016.

    “By virtue of the expiration of their tenure on March 24, the eleven LGA chairmen stand dissolved hence the need to appoint sole administrators in order not to have a vacuum at the LGAs,” it stated.

    The statement said that the state government invoked the “doctrine of necessity’’ to avoid vacuum at the LGAs pending the conduct of council elections in the state.

    It explained that the tenure of office of chairmen of Keana Local Government Area and Keffi Local Government Area would expire in November, 2016.

    The statement listed the new sole administrators as Kwanta Yakubu, Akwanga LGA; Hashimu Chada, Awe LGA; John Nash, Doma LGA; Eya Yinallah, Karu LGA; Musa Namo, Kokona LGA and Ahmed Sulieman, Wambai-Lafia LGA.

    Others are Mr Ayuba Usman, Nasarawa LGA; Akolo Ahmed-Success, Nassarawa-Eggon LGA; Hajia Sahadatu Alituhu, Obi LGA; Musa Oyineyi-Mohammed, Toto LGA and Musa Shaibu, Wayu-Wamba LGA. (NAN)

  • Update: Rivers election cancelled in eight LGAs

    Rivers State Electoral Commissioner, Aniedi Ikoiwak has announced the cancellation of election in two more Local Government Areas (LGAs)  in the state due to irregularities.

    The council areas are Etche and Asari-Toru.

    The Saturday elections in six LGAs had earlier been cancelled.

     

     

  • Happy Easter?; Oil price increase; Do LGAs have a future?; ‘ONLY 129 girls’

    Happy Easter?; Oil price increase; Do LGAs have a future?; ‘ONLY 129 girls’

    The murder of security personnel and the kidnap of 129 students with 49 found and the Nyanya, Abuja bombing claiming 75 lives with hundreds injured terrorise us all just as political violence terrorises us. The ‘heat signal’ generated by vehicles carrying maybe 3-400 people must show on foreign satellites. When will that convergence of information from international satellites on the Sambisa Forest lead to recovery of the terrorised girls? If you were not a distraught parent, you should have shared their pain with prayers and donations. Just perhaps you had a ‘Happy Easter’ even without electricity and you spent four or 10 hours longer on the road.

    Nigerian political authorities have traditionally misspent/stolen the budget before elections. This 2014 budget should not be diverted to political war chests for 2015. With the budget passed, government must give Nigerians 130,000+Mw, the East-West Road, the Second Niger Bridge and the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, start the Solar Revolution and fund textbooks and novels in all school. These ‘Matters Of Urgent National Importance’ do not need Economic Summits. They are not nuclear physics, but political ABCs, achievable by a forceful visionary leadership with a sense of history. Power is not the power of corruption bank accounts but the power to participate for positive change and persuade others likewise.

    Nigerians need to use information better. The price of oil is $104. The budget oil benchmark is $77 or so. This nearly $30 difference and unbudgeted gain for 2.5million barrels day, 22% in billions of extra naira earned. We must prevent that 22% disappearing into the Excess Crude Account or follow the missing $20billion or the First and Second Gulf Oil windfalls. The money must accelerate development.

    Nigeria has job opportunities that should have been created long ago. But now, even education leads to unemployment. The government in the past and present has misused Local Government Areas (LGAs) which should have had a ‘stay and work at home’ development policy. But no one created the developmental and conducive environment at LGA level. Most LGAs are rundown by gangster governments. Who wants to work in an LGA without good without good facilities and staff?

    In any other country, the terrors of our time would require a cross party solution since politics and the poor decisions of the political class are causes of LGA, state and federal problems and the solutions. But here ‘we blame passing strangers for our body odour and dirty underwear’ fulfilling the well-worn African proverb of ‘pointing one accusing finger at others while four fingers point back at us’. The calculated destruction or non-construction of the LGA level is caused by local, state and federal machinations. Most LGAs were never developmental, but just another level of corruption, political financing with voter manipulation and punishment-or-reward for foe or friend, with no serious service. Initially LGA councils notoriously meet only monthly on allocation day to share funds among the traditional rulers, bigwigs and hangers-on. Indeed it was this coupled with theft of salaries for teachers that helped ruin education. This corruption forced the transfer of LGA budgets to the states to guarantee salaries and LGAs were run by the occupying state political party. Even indigenes refused to spend allocated funds on schools, education and health preferring to steal everything. Only few states are genuinely interested in the citizens or want to protect their political flank. Many LGA staff have questionable credentials and motives with no ‘service to others before self’ attitude and often leave LGAs worse off.

    The value of LGAs versus their cost and consequences needs reassessment. The power of the LGAs is too absolute with thugs as enforcers. LGAs must have non-political citizens in LGA Council Committees. ICPC and EFCC should be preventive ‘Early warning’ at LGA council meetings to help stop corruption, stupid LGA taxation, levies and political mayhem. Our Non-Sovereign National Conference should ask why there were 77 in old Kano before Jigawa was split off and now 44 LGAs in Kano and only 20 in Lagos. Is the discriminatory fiat of maximum military might and ethnic arrogance not correctable by this NSNC? Perhaps we should cancel LGAs funding from federal entirely and have states do so as most of them already manage to corner the LGA budgets through one subterfuge or the other –from co-signatories to accounts to stalled LGA election schedules. The questions are –would states run better under the governor? Of course Governor ‘He or she’ may deprive LGAs which did not vote for ‘him or her’ but that is the political game worldwide. Politics must be played fairly with justice to all. If LGAs had carried their weight even with the funds available to them over the last 50 years, there is no reason why any citizen would need to travel for greener pastures. Can the failed LGA system be fixed, rendered accountable and of ‘Service with a Smile’? We are all in an LGA. Has an LGA Chairman or official ever once written or sent a message to congratulate anyone you know or their parents for ‘Exemplary Service to the LGA’? Of course not! Only demand notices!

    Whenever there is a dispute over tragedy numbers, even ‘one’ victim should never be addressed as ‘only one’. Government agencies must never use ‘ONLY’ for the number of dead. For the families that ‘only one’ death is 100% loss.

  • LASG urged to provide standard gyms in LGAs

    Coach with Golden Boxing Club in Lagos State, Foyinbo Jubril, on Tuesday urged the state government to provide boxing gyms in all local governments.

    Jubril, a veteran boxer, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the gyms would help to improve the skill and performance of boxers. He said that a lot of talented athletes were not yet discovered considering the distance and the barriers they have to go through before getting to a sports centre for training.

    “The provision will also assist new and existing boxers to have access to gyms close to them to further enhance their skills,’’ Jubril said.

    He added that most training environment of boxers were usually parks and motor vehicle garages. The coach also appealed to the government to give scholarships to athletes that performed well to reduce unemployment among youths.

    He called on the government to organise clinics for the technical officials to enable them to get updated with the new rules and techniques guiding the sport.

    Jubril advocated for the need to celebrate boxers who had performed excellently and become world champions such as Samuel Peters, Hakeem Anifowoshe and Nojeem Mayegun among other professionals.

    “Remembering boxers who have brought glory to the country in boxing will motivate and boost the morale of the amateur and upcoming boxers.”

  • Yobe thwarts PDP’s 2015 calculations

    Yobe thwarts PDP’s 2015 calculations

    IT took a lot of courage and political savvy to conduct the local government election in Yobe State’s 17 LGAs in the closing days of last year. That Governor Ibrahim Gaidam was able to pull it off comes not only as a surprise to Nigerians, opposition party and ruling party alike, it effectively put paid to any plan by both the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disenfranchise the Northeast, a significant bulwark of the opposition.

    The PDP and the Jonathan presidency will now have to rework their calculations if they hope to retain the office they have won thrice, mostly dubitably. In 2015, the chances of holding elections in Yobe are much higher than it was when the state had not yet conducted its LGA poll.