‘Caretaker Committee Illegal, Do Not Pay Monthly Allocation To Any Gov Who Set It Up’ – Audu Ogbeh To FG

A former Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, has asked President Bola Tinubu’s government to cease the disbursement of monthly allocations to states that establish caretaker committees for Local Government (LG) administrations.

Naija News understands that there is currently a total of 774 local government areas in Nigeria.

However, the effectiveness of the third tier of government has been hindered by certain controlling and domineering governors who have been accused of misappropriating funds intended for the management of local governments.

In recent months, there has been a growing demand for local government autonomy in Nigeria.

President Tinubu has also expressed support for this cause, and in May, the Federal Government filed a lawsuit against the 36 state governors for alleged misconduct involving local government funds.

Currently, the Federal Government receives 52.68% of the country’s monthly revenue, while the states receive 26.72%.

In contrast, the LGs receive only 20.60% of the revenue, which is allocated by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) under the Presidency and disbursed by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

Interestingly, the funds allocated to the LGs are deposited into a joint account managed by both the state governments and the local governments within their respective jurisdictions.

Caretaker Committee Illegal

Speaking, however, on the recent controversies on caretaker committees established in some states, Ogbe, who was on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television on Friday, urged the federal government to take decisive action against the establishment of such.

“Any governor who sets up a caretaker committee should not receive any funds because a caretaker is illegal, by the Supreme Court. Don’t send them cash, deduct their own and keep it,” the 76-year-old former minister said.

The former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) suggested that the Federal Government cease the allocation of LG funds to joint accounts and transfer them to accounts managed exclusively by local government administrations.

“I can’t be sending you money that disappears. You don’t repair primary schools, you don’t do anything, the money vanishes and they say they are paying workers, for which work? Strolling around in the morning and drinking palm wine? These are the issues. Those failures are creating dangerous problems for the country,” he said.

Ogbeh claimed that certain governors appoint their loyal followers as temporary chairmen for local governments, provide them with allowances, and misappropriate a significant portion of the funds designated for local government administration.

Naija News reports that during his tenure as the Nigerian agriculture minister from 2015 to 2019, Ogbeh supported the efforts of the Federal Government, led by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, to grant financial and legislative independence to local governments across the nation.

He emphasized the need for the President and the 36 state governors to engage in meaningful discussions to determine the future course of action for local governments.

The politician, hailing from Benue, highlighted that if the local government system operates effectively, numerous social and environmental challenges prevalent in the country would be mitigated.

“Here you have a system which, unfortunately, is not working. If it were working, a lot of these problems would not be there. You have a governor in the state and there are 10, 15 local governments, and the local government is failing,” Ogbeh said on Friday.

Ogbeh posited that governors ought to perceive local governments as collaborators in the advancement of societal progress, particularly in the provision of safe drinking water for the populace and in the containment of infectious diseases such as Cholera.

Additionally, he emphasized the need for the repair of decrepit classrooms in primary and secondary schools, the proper storage of medications at healthcare facilities under their jurisdiction, and the provision of other essential services to enhance the well-being of the community.

Furthermore, Ogbeh suggested that the Local Government System should be abolished if governors are unwilling to allow it to operate effectively.

“What I want to say to Nigerians, if we don’t want the local government system, scrap it, if it were allowed to work, it would have been a fantastic system,” he said.

He stressed that state governors are building anger and frustration among people at the grassroots through the arbitrary dissolution of constitutionally elected LG chairmen and the imposition of caretaker chairmen.