Nigeria: LGs Got N3.3 Trillion in Eight Years - Farida
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Leadership (Abuja)
27 August 2008
Posted to the web 27 August 2008
Lilian Agih
The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs Farida Waziri, has revealed that the local governments across the country had in the last eight years received N3.3 trillion as allocations and warned the 774 local councils to judiciously and transparently spend their funds on people-oriented projects.
She made the call in her welcome address at the 2nd EFCC/ALGON National Workshop which kicked off on Tuesday August 26, 2008 at the Commission's Training and Research Institute (TRI), Karu, Abuja.
Waziri regretted that local government administration had become elitist and has excluded the people in which it was meant for.
"Local government has become so far removed from the lives of people to a point where some chief executives of local government councils no longer reside in the domain they were elected to administer."
She said that some of those chairmen only drive in their exotic vehicles from state capitals only when salaries and other monies are to be shared and then disappear till the next subvention comes from the federation account.
Waziri lamented that it was ironic that this disconnect between the government and the governed was happening when huge monies are allocated to the local governments.
Detailing various aspects of the commission's mandate, the EFCC boss noted that everyone must join in the fight against corruption, especially at the local government level.
"If we fail at this foundational level, we would have failed at all levels; because the local councils contain nearly Nigeria's entire rural majority", she stressed.
She pointed out that the commission's new strategy was targeted at the procurement of intelligence driven prosecution and a vigorous and sustained re-orientation agenda aimed at winning the hearts and minds of Nigerians.
"Corruption is an activity. It is also a mindset sustained by ideas that are largely false and misleading. The best way to fight an idea is with another idea", she said.
Speaking earlier in a remark, one of the two special guests and governor of Plateau State, Mr. Jonah Jang, had noted that the workshop was apt as the local government administration has over the years become drain pipes where some so-called "development centres are mere avenues of siphoning government funds."
He, however, pointed out that some state governors are responsible for the poor state of affairs in these local governments as they fail to completely release funds accruable to them.
He called for a thorough screening of whoever would wish to occupy the position of a local government chairman, saying that many of them are grossly unqualified. He also advocated for a regular auditing of the local government councils.
The Katsina State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Shema in his own remark, advocated for a people- oriented and systematic programme of action at the local government level, stressing that until this was done, the country would not achieve the 20-2020 dream of becoming one of the 20 most developed nations in the world.
He praised the efforts of his predecessor, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, who is now the President of Nigeria for laying the foundation for an effective grassroots development in the state.
The workshop, with the theme "Accountability and Transparency in Local government Administration" was organised by the EFCC in conjunction with the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and is aimed at sensitizing senior officers of that tier of government on the need for effective leadership predicated upon transparency and accountability.
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Participants at the workshop were drawn from the Federal Capital Territory and six states, namely Gombe, Enugu, Kogi, Ogun, Kano and Niger.
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nigerians, all these talks about MADAM EFCC and local govts. are all rubbish. until madam EFCC explains to the nation and nigerians why she called off, the arrest and prosecution of lyle imoke, in abuja, sometime ago, she madam EFCC has no business giving lectures on corruption. she is one of the pen robbers. she was brought to office to protect these pen robbers. nigerians, i call on all of u, to rise above these deceits from the PDP PROPERTY DIVING PARTY, and take the duty of being a watch dog, on the treasury. i said it… [Read Full Text]