Financial Autonomy: It’ll No Longer Be Business As Usual For Councils In Nigeria –Agberen

By Daniel Dafe

Comr. (Amb) Derrick Oritsematosan Agberen, National Coordinator, Initiative for Social Rights Concerns And Advancements (ISRCA) AKA, No Justice, No Peace, has said that the financial autonomy given to Local Government Council Chairmen, provides them the opportunities to render services to the people at the grassroots.

Agberen who said this in a statement on Wednesday, added that the arrangement “will definitely lead to grassroot development in councils across states, if only, the council Chairmen imbibe in them the sense of responsiveness and properly doing their jobs effectively.”

He continued: “Henceforth, it will not be unusual seeing most of the various council chairmen in different States cooling their feet in EFCC detention facility and the Nigeria Correctional Centers.

“Local Government Chairmen across the federation should understand that they will be held accountable for the area’s under their jurisdiction and the corruption of the state government would not be spread to the local government, where the performance of the local government shall be directly based, as they will not be intimidated, suppressed or hindered from performing their duties unlike before.”

According to him, “the alibis in various state governments that are starving and depriving councils of funds would no longer be working to cover-up their corruption and kleptomania attitude.”

Meanwhile, he posited that “the various council leaders should be able to reduce pressures from State Governments by being responsible for the people in the grassroots and be able to render services like improving the roads, health care centers or possibly building more centers to reduce populations from the State General Hospitals.”

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“It should also be able to provide empowerment schemes and securing streets and adequate lighting and surveillance in communities, as these measures deter crime, improve safety, and support crime resolution, especially from the grassroots and rural areas where crimes begin from,” he added.

“Of course, it is not going to be easy this time because Nigerians will be more interested to know what happen to the funds allocated to the Local Government system to develop the rural areas. As representatives of the civil society, we will not hesitate but collaborate with relevant agencies to ensure that local government chairmen who are unable to account for funds and how it was manipulating the system to suit themselves and their principals would answer for misappropriation and other financial crimes.

“Therefore, every allocation given to local government should be published to notify the people,” he concluded.