By Yemi Balogun
A former Commission for Local Governments in Benue State, Mr. John Tondus has said the lack of autonomy of the local government contributes 75 to 80 per cent of insecurity problems facing the country.
He lamented that local government Chairmen are mere Chief security officers of the local government on paper because they don’t even have access to N2 million as security votes to tackle security challenges in their domain.
The former commissioner said in a situation where a local government chairman needs to spend N2 million on issues of security in his domain, he would have to get approval from the governor.
Tondus, a 2019 Governorship aspirant in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stated this on Tuesday in Abuja after he received an award of recognition from the National Association of Northern Nigerian Students as an Icon of Societal Development.
He expressed worry that the crippling of the local governments by state governors was responsible for the deteriorating security situation in the country.
Against this background, Tondus called on the National Assembly to ensure that the autonomy of the third tier of government is guaranteed in the constitution.
His words: “It is state governors that are responsible for the insecurity that is taking place in this country today. Because, if the system is functional to an extent, the local government will be in a position considering the fact that they recruit local vigilantes that know every nook and corner of the LGA and be able to identify where criminals are hiding.
“But they are not empowered to do that. So, even if they are willing they won’t be able to achieve that because the state governors are taking the resources meant for the local government.”
He added, “The state governors make the local government chairman sign these monies into a joint account that are used for the purposes not meant for. Go to the local government and find out exactly the wage bill. Take two to three LGAs as a case study. What exactly is the wage bill of such a local government?
“And how much is the monthly allocation for that local government? If you are able to establish how much is the monthly wage bill of the local government, then ask the chairmen about the surplus of this money. How do they utilize it that for this period that you are the chairman.
“There is no single one capital project that you can point to. And this money is also not there. How will you explain? You will come back and tell me the governors are responsible for 85-95% of the insecurity that we are facing as a nation today,” he stated.