By Joseph Edegbo –
The fiscal sustainability constraints being faced by local governments in Kaduna State have been attributed to the highjack of most of their responsibilities by the State Government.
An Advocate of Good Governance and Lead, Local Government Accountability Mechanism, Yusuf Ishaku Goje stated this in a presentation in Kaduna titled “Increasing Functionality of the Local Government System through Financial Administrative Autonomy.
It was at a One-day Session with critical Stakeholders organised by Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) to influence the consideration and ratification of Constitutional Amendment by the Kaduna State House of Assembly.
In attendance were CSOs, Media, NBA, NULGE, NLC, ALGON, Women Group, Persons With Disability, ASUU as well as Representatives of the State House of Assembly, among others.
Goje was of the opinion that if the local governments were autonomous before now, the issue of insecurity prevailing would have been nipped in the bud.
Goje listed a number of Key Amendments for advocacy to the State House of Assembly to include, Making Local Government a Tier of Government, Creating Standard Tenure For Local Government Administration, Abolishing Use of Caretaker Committees and Joint Account Allocation Committee, JAAC.
Others are Direct Allocation, Making Special Provision for joint payment of teaching and non teaching staff of SUBEB by the Federal, State and Local governments.
Goje contended that the impact of governance would be positively felt by all citizens, if local governments, Legislature and the Judiciary are independent.
Acknowledging the Role of the Media, the State Team Lead of PERL, Mr. Adejor Abel explained that like the previous years, PERL is working with critical partners to champion advocacy for the ratification of the Bills by the State House of Assembly, especially the bill which would increase functionality of the Local Government system through Financial Administrative Autonomy as well as others.
” With this bill, each local government council will be able to create and maintain its own special account to be called Local Government Allocation Account into which all the allocations will be paid. The bill also will enable the local governments to generate their own revenue as approved by the State Assembly and also allow local governments to conduct their own elections” he said.
While reiterating the commitment of PERL to improving collaboration between governments and citizens to tackle governance challenges and improve service delivery. Mr. Adejor praised the media for not only playing the role in shaping and guiding discourse, but also explaining how it affects citizens.
