The Chairman of All Progressive Congress (APC) in Plateau State, Hon Latep Dabang has faulted the steps taken so far by the House of Representatives to address the problems associated with State-Local government joint allocation.

The National Assembly has commenced the processes of granting local government autonomy to put an end to the provision of the Nigerian constitution that gave birth to state-local government joint account.

The state APC chairman while commenting on the move by the House of Representatives said the move to grant autonomy to the third tier of government is a wrong step in the right direction.

Hon. Dabang informed journalist that, “The joint account has its advantages and its disadvantages, but obviously the advantages are more than the disadvantages. It is unfortunate that the operators of the constitution have abused that particular provision and made it look as if it is of no benefit to the local government.

He said, “The intention of having the joint account is largely for the benefit of the local governments, the benefit is such that when the monthly subversion comes from the federation account every month, it goes to that joint account. Then each state government is expected to add certain percentage of their internal revenue to that subvention of that month.

“The case of Plateau State is a typical example, two local governments in Plateau State, Jos North and Mangu local government would likely cease to exist if not for the joint account strategy. Every month when the local government allocation comes, the teacher’s salary is taken out first since it is on the first line charge. You will discover that Mangu and Jos North local governments will not be able to pay their staff salary. But by putting the subvention in a common pool for redistribution from the joint account, no longer government is allowed to suffer from lack of adequate fund”, he said.

“Now the National Assembly said they want to create autonomy for the local governments, I don’t see this working, because it requires two things; it will require the amendment of the constitution, it requires the acceptance of 2/3 of state assemblies across the country.

“The section 7 and 8 of the constitution has placed the responsibility of the local governments squarely on the State House of Assembly, for the administration of the local governments and for the financing of the local governments. There will likely be a problem amending that constitutional provision because the house of assembly might resist it. Such attempts has failed in previous administrations, so I don’t see it working even now.

“I expect the National Assembly to make new laws to sanction the state government where the current provisions for joint account is being abuse, that will help the country better than granting local government autonomy because I believe the process of granting the autonomy will not be easy and even if it succeeds, it will create more problems than solution,” said Dabang.

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Letep Dabang faults Nat. Assembly approach on LG joint account