By Cross Udo, Abuja
The Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) has said that it was mobilising support for the Federal Government to block allocations to unelected local government councils.
This came as the leadership of ALGON paid a courtesy visit to the two chambers of the National Assembly on how to strengthen the local government administration.
At the meeting with both the Chambers of the National Assembly were some of its Board of Trustees (BoT) members, a top-notch delegation from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, as well as supporters across the 774 local government areas.
Also present at the meeting led by the ALGON President, Alabi David, were politically exposed local government-friendly leaders and some civil society groups.
At the meeting, the ALGON delegation threw its weight behind the lawmakers to withhold funds from such affected states until elections are conducted.
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ALGON expressed its appreciation to the leadership of the 10th National Assembly led by Senator Godswill Akpabio and his Green Chamber counterpart Rt. Hon Tajudeen Abbas for what they described as ‘uncommon political will’.
The two parties reinforced and affirmed their resolve to bring such executive rascality to an end.
Received by the Chairman Senate Committee on States and Local Governments, Senator Binos Yaroe Dauda, (Adamawa South) and Hon Shehu Saleh Rijau (representing Magama/Rijau Federal Constituency in Niger State), the lawmakers appreciated the ALGON leadership and restated their determination to partner with it to end the monster which according to them is inhibiting development in the grassroots.
Binos stated that as a one-time secretary of Zing local Government of the old Gongola state in the late 80s, he understood the travails of many Chairmen from then till date.
He urged the ALGON exco to unite with the National Assembly in a bid to end the malaise through effective engagement, legal means, advocacy, civic engagement, lobby, information sharing, and resilient.
In the same vein, his House of Reps counterpart Hon Shehu Saleh said that to achieve the desired success, it was incumbent on ALGON to maintain a fluid relationship and ensure clockwork feedback to the House to further equip them with useful information to check the anomaly.
He said as members of the 360 Federal Constituencies, they must join hands together to fight for the independence of local government to bring economic prosperity to the people.
He called for information gathering to enrich the Committee’s work and make it easier.
Responding, Alabi who spoke along with other members of the ALGON delegation thanked the President, Commander In Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Bola Tinubu for being an incontrovertible local government-friendly leader whose millstones when he was a governor of Lagos state for eight years, led to internalization of visionary leadership that devolved power by offering direct access and ownership of rural government to the people.
He said that the singular act helped to unbundle the system which resulted in milestone achievements the state recorded.
He commended Senator Abba Moro the Senate Minority Leader, who recently presented a motion during plenary, describing him as an honest LG-friendly statesman and compassionate leader.
He noted that the Senate Minority leader in the motion, recalled his experience with the visiting ALGON executives during his days in the 90’s as Local Government Chairman in Benue state.
He regretted the erosion of basic principles of constitutional democracy inherent in many states from then till now, describing it as unacceptable and long overdue to be brought to an end to free the space for development to thrive.
