THE Niger Delta Budget Monitoring Group and the Civil Liberties Organisation have called on Nigerian governors to stop using local government funds for state projects.
NDEBUMOG and CLO urged the governors involved in such practice to allow the third tier of government to enjoy fiscal independence.
The Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the budget group, Mr Anthony Georgehill, said in an interview with our correspondent that democracy would not be deepened if the councils were denied fiscal autonomy to develop the people in the rural areas.
Georgehill said, “What the governors are doing in the area of spending local government funds is to suppress our democracy. One of the ingredients of democracy is fiscal accountability.
“We can’t have fiscal accountability if this tier of government is not allowed to be independent. When the local government is independent, it enables the people to demand accountability from it (local government).
“The governors consider that if they allow local government autonomy, it will affect their political structure. But when the governors are out of the system, they will see the need why they should have allowed local government autonomy.
“Governors should allow funds meant for the local government areas to be controlled by the local governments. The governors should not use monies belonging to the third tier of government for state development.”
Similarly, the Zonal Director, South-South Zone of the CLO, Mr Steve Obodoekwe, described the action of some governors who were in the habit of using monies belonging to local governments as illegal, corrupt and unconstitutional.
Obodoekwe said, “The local government money should all be left for the Local Government Areas. I wonder how they (governors) even get it because these days, money meant for the local government is transferred to the councils directly.
“I don’t understand how they still have access to such monies. I think it is because the governors impose chairmen on the councils. That is why it is easy for the governors to manipulate them. The governors touching local government money is illegal; it is unconstitutional and it is corruption.
“The money at the state level should be enough for the states to do whatever they are doing, while the local government money should be allowed to be used for the people at the grassroots.
“The third tier of government is the government that is close to the people and that is where development should start and not at the state capitals.”
-Punch