Bauchi Gov Tasks LG Chairmen to Brace up for Autonomy

By Segun Awofadeji

The Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, has charged local government chairmen in the state to brace up to the responsibility that comes with local government autonomy, saying that they must have the capacity to contain it.

According to the governor, the local councils should learn to maximize resources at their disposal no matter how little as the state government also uses little resources to execute projects in the state.

According to the governor, the local councils should learn to maximise resources at their disposal no matter how little as the state government also used little resources to execute projects in the state.

Mohammed said: “In this meeting with you, we are going to discuss issues of your autonomy. It would appear you don’t even have capacity for the autonomy we are giving you. You are only after the money and not the challenges. You can see how we are using very small resources to do a lot of things.

“We have to do that, in some cases, you say, you have not been given money. But what you have been given is what you have and that is what we are given at the state level and the commissioners responsible for all these things are here.

“From this time on, I want you to start paying your salaries because I am tired of the treasury managing your salaries and you are blaming them for ghost workers. You will take responsibility for your resources. What you don’t know is that we augment salaries of certain local governments, whereas some have enough. But we cannot continue to take from Paul to pay Peter.

“We will give you your money and you should know how to utilise it, where you cannot, then you will have to do anyway with the excesses of expenditure. A situation whereby Bauchi is spending about N500 million on salary a month is unacceptable, N300 million a month is not enough to pay salary in Toro local government because there are dead people and the rest of people living in Abuja, collecting salaries and you know them. This should be stopped by the treasury, but they have refused to do it.

“You have given me assurances that you are going to do it. I will try you, so that you will be able to do it yourself. I have discussed with your commissioner, so let us try that system and let us see. I discovered that this thing was migrated during the last administration of former Governor Isa Yuguda from the local government to the center and the fraud is perpetrated electronically now.

“The nominal roll are fluid, you cannot control them. I agree, you cannot control what you don’t have access to. So, we are going to give you, your destinies in your hands. Let us see it as a trail, what will happen since you have given assurances. If you are able to do that, you will be able to do us proud.”