LG Funds: NASS to Enact Laws Backing  Tinubu to Recover Trillions, Says Karimi

Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja

Senator Sunday Steve Karimi representing Kogi West Senatorial District has disclosed the parliament will soon enact relevant laws backing President Bola Tinubu to recover trillions of local government funds allegedly stolen by some governors in the country.
This position was contained in a statement made available to journalists in Lokoja on Sunday

Karimi, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Services, also said the move is to compel the  state governors to  strictly  adhere  to the Supreme Court judgment on fiscal autonomy for the third tier of government.

Speaking while  hosting  his constituents during the yuletide break, the federal lawmaker recalled the landmark ruling of the Supreme Court of Nigeria dated July 25th , 2024, which directed seamless federal allocation of funds to the 774 councils in the country.
Quoting from  the Apex Court  judgement, he  said:  “state governors’ control over local government resources is unconstitutional, while also voiding caretaker committees as illegal.”

Senator Karimi however  observed the judgement aimed to strengthen grassroots democracy and governance by ensuring that allocations go directly to elected officials, without state interference.
According to him, despite the explicit and unambiguous declaration by the highest court in the land, the lawmaker lamented that  some states have continued to disregard and disrespect the ruling.
His words: “Cognizant of the errant conduct of some state governors on the issue, President Tinubu warned at the recent National Executive Committee meeting of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) a fortnight ago, that he may be compelled to issue an Executive Order to whip defaulting governors into line.”
He however stated the president had exercised restraint for so long with noncompliance by some  governors, despite the fact that the president  has the powers to impose on them to do what is right.
“The National Assembly will prioritise the matter of the non-adherence of certain governors across the broad spectrum, to the subsisting Supreme Court ruling on local government financial autonomy. We will back the president with relevant laws which will be retroactively effective.
“The laws will track the kleptomania and squander mania of governors who have been looting the commonwealth of the people of Nigeria. They will be prosecuted, compelled to make returns and punished for undermining the wellbeing of the generality of the people, by willfully stealing what rightly belongs to them.”
Speaking further, Karimi said that trillions of naira had been pilfered from the resources of Nigerians by gluttonous governors.
His words: “There is general consensus that no administration in contemporary history has made as much resources available to states and local government areas as the Tinubu government, but the people are barely feeling the impact in many places.
“During the screening of service chiefs recently, the Chief of Defence Staff noted that not allowing LGAs to function has contributed to insecurity in the country, creating lots of ungoverned space in the country.

“Some governors, their godfathers and members of their cabals, put a knife on local government funds every month, as their own “dessert” after meals”
This, the Kogi West Senator noted, “is why the local government system is dysfunctional and incapable of rendering the most basic services to their constituents. It is the reason many parts of the country have become dangerous ungoverned spaces and operational bases for terrorists.

“Governors who have been willfully denying the people the resources for development, their aiders and abettors, and their rabid defenders in the media will meet their comeuppance when the parliament enables the appropriate legislations” Senator Karimi said.