Why Niger Govt Is Still Operating Joint Accounts With The 25 LGA — ALGON Chairman

Olabide Adaramola

The decision of the Niger state government’s  augmentation of  the monthly allocations of some local governments areas  in the state  from the Federal Allocation Accounts Committee( FAAC) that  can hardly  meet the payments  of their monthly wage bills amongst which was  Chanchaga Local Government Area of the state,  with the highest number of workforce in the entire 25 Local Governments Areas of  the state and with very huge monthly wage bills,  has been described as  responsible for the partial direct autonomy of the councils from the state government.

The Chairman, Association of Local Government Chairmen of Nigeria, (ALGON) Niger state’s chapter, Alhaji Ibrahim Abubakar Bosso, (a.k.a. Lalalo) stated this at the weekend in an interactive session with the newsmen on the sidelines of the official Flagg- Off of the free Eye treatments for persons suffering from eye problems in the 11Wards of the local government,  sponsored by him and held at the Palace og the Emir of Minna, Alhaji Umar Farouq Bahago, last Saturday.

The ALGON Chairman, who is also the Chairman, Chanchaga Local Government Council  of the state, explained further  that the augmentation of the monthly wages of some local governments areas in the state with overbloated wage bills  by the Niger state government was in collaboration with some other local governments areas  of the state, with surplus monthly allocations from FAAC.

He said, “what we are getting now is a partial direct allocation because if we rely on on that in  Chanchaga Local Government that has the highest number of workforce among   the 25 Local Governments Areas of Niger state, i am very sure that our Local Government cannot be able to pay our employees. But now, we used to be augmented by the surplus that other Local Governments Areas are having. So, the state government in partnerships with the other local governments in the state would now augment the deficiency that we have  so that we would pay our workers salaries on monthly basis.”

He however, noted that ghost workers were everywhere in the state, especially amongst  the local governments employees across the state, adding that the Councils Chairmen in the 25 Local Governments Areas of the state, were trying to curtail it.

“We have put in place so many measures to make sure that we fished out the ghost workers in our midsts. In fact, they are not ghosts as far as I am concerned, but they are physical humans, but they were not given appointments in the right way.

“In fact, we have implored the leadership of the Niger state’s branch of the National Union of Local Governments Employees and their counterparts from the Nigeria Labour Congress(NLC) including the state’s branch of the Nigerian Union of Teachers( NUT)  to do the screening exercise for us because they know where to fish out the ghost workers and they know them very well”, he declared .

The Council Boss, stated further that his decision to embark on the Sponsorship of the free Eye screenings and treatments of about 1,500 persons with various eyes problems across the 11 Wards of the local government was in fulfilment of his campaign promises when he emerged as the Chairmanship candidate of the APC, sometimes last year, adding that if the eyes were healthy, the whole body would be full of light.

But on the other hand, he argued that if the eyes were unhealthy, the whole body would be full of darkness, stressing that the eyes were the windows of the body.

He said, that “it is in line with this popular phrase that the local government has decided to kick- start the free medical mission, with the free eye care, community service as an initiative that targets the poor residents across Chanchaga Local Government Area of the state”.