Alia Gives Assurance on Local Govt Autonomy

George Okoh in Makurdi

Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State has hailed local government autonomy even as he disclosed the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs is helping the local government in the area of coordination.

Mr. DenenAondoakaa, the Special Adviser on Bureau of LG said this during an interaction with newsmen in his office on Tuesday, insisting that LGAs in the state practice financial autonomy.

He added that his office only has the duty to coordinate while the local governments handle everything at their own level.

He said though the figures accruing to the local government from the Federation Account may seem huge, payment of staff salaries, arrears of pensions gulp a huge chunk of it.

His words: “Now, when someone look at the figures, the total figure, it is huge, am not saying it is correct but what are the responsibilities? What are their finances? I have a local government whose pension is over 200 million every month and other one, 50 million.

“So, what one local government pays as pension alone, is enough for another to use to pay as salaries and pensions. So, the finances of the local government are not the same. This is the same thing at the national level. “Those figures can never be the same. Are the needs analysis same as the expenditure? So, it is when you match this with what an individual LG is expending, then you can say this one can do that. But what we are trying to do is to ensure that these resources are optimized and efficiently utilized at the various LGAs.

“We practice local government financial autonomy. What we do is to coordinate and the local government handle everything at their own level. There are existing laws and agencies that oversee the local governments. For efficiency, you still need a tool to coordinate them.

“One of them is even the Chieftaincy. A paramount ruler either in Tiv or Idoma land cannot deal directly with a council Chairman. You have the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB. If you go back to history, there is a reason why it was created and it is in every state of the federation. It was because of the local government inability to prioritize the payment of teachers’ salary at that time.

“When they have these finances, some did not care. While some would pay the teachers, others will be on strike. So, that was done to harmonize the situation. To have a common pool to take care of teachers’ salary.Same for primary health care. So, it is possible to do away with this ministry or Bureau for LGCA? That is why they were established to coordinate the system.”

On conflicts between council chairmen and their legislative houses, Aondoakaa said it is healthy to disagree and afterward reach a common ground.

“The councilors have the right to question the chairmen, that is the beauty of democracy. Most often, we disagree to agree. So, the disagreement that happen between councillorship and chairmen is a normal thing. The issue is those who agree or disagree are they in the minority or majority subject to interpretation but the issue was that some of them were not happy with the Chairman.

“But I think the chairman has had a common ground with them. If they allow the system to grow, that is the only way they can stabilize both at the state and national level. Those disagreements will always come up but then, there is always a mechanism to resolve those challenges. Am aware of Otukpo but not Ado LGA”, he said

While commenting on the long delay in giving officials vehicles to council chairmen, the Bureau boss said on assumption of office, he discovered that some local government chairman already had vehicles that were purchased before their inauguration, averring that owing to security challenges they are facing in their areas, they donated the vehicles to security agencies.

Hear him, “When I came in, the LG already had vehicles on ground that were purchased before their inauguration to be given to them. That is why you have to respect the chairmen but when the insecurity became too much, they gave those vehicles to security agencies for patrol at their various levels.

“Most of the DPOs do not have vehicles. They needed so many things. They bought motorcycles so each council ward can have a motorcycle for its security coordination because it became expedient as in most of the communities, vehicles cannot ply especially in the Frontline areas.

“The beauty of it is that, some LGAs have advantage. If we do not support the frontline LGAs to protect themselves, this insecurity will overrun all of us. If it overruns Katsina – Ala or Logo, Tarka, Buruku will be involved and before you know it, it will get to Ushongo. So, what they do is to pool their resources so as to aid in protecting these frontline areas.

“Otherwise, if Gwer West is not doing well and they overrun it, what will happen, Gwer East will be affected, if Agatu is overrun, Otukpo will be affected.