The gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party in the last Plateau gubernatorial election, Professor Patrick Dakum, has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to speedily set up a monitoring team as a watchdog against possible financial misappropriation at the third tier of government.
He, however, stated that the Supreme Court’s judgment granting financial autonomy to the 774 local government areas in Nigeria will spur rapid development at the grassroots.
Dakum, in a statement, said the Supreme Court’s judgment on LGA autonomy is a supreme booster for grassroots development, tasking the antigraft agencies to beam their searchlight on the chairmen.
He stressed that the lamentation on rural areas’ underdevelopment occasioned by confiscation of local government’s funds disbursed from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), by state governments through joint accounts, which over the years has denied them (LGs) absolute financial autonomy to develop at their pace, and their subservience imposed by the second tier of government through undemocratic means of leadership, are now history.
He said, “Rural transformation is the fastest means of developing the country, both infrastructurally and humanly, through the protection and promotion of the socio-economic wellbeing of the citizens at the grassroots, which will automatically reflect progress at the state and federal levels.
“This can be achieved by securing the financial autonomy of the local governments (as obtained yesterday through the Supreme Court’s judgment), coupled with uninterrupted democratically elected chairmanship and councillors, and also by prudent and judicious use of public funds.”
Dakum commended the Federal Government for taking the giant step in liberating the LGs, saying it is a good omen of better things to come if financial leakages are blocked and visionary, patriotic, and hard-working people are elected to oversee the affairs of the third tiers of government.
. TheWitness