T HE proposal by the Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, calling for an amendment to the Constitution to facilitate greater allocation of funds to the states and local governments has drawn the ire of the state Action Congress.
The Ogun East senatorial candidate of the AC in the 2007 election, Mr. Bisi Adegbuyi, has said that the states of the federation should justify the allocations they have received in terms of development before calling for more money.

Speaking in an interview with our correspondent in Abeokuta on Tuesday, Adegbuyi, who contested against Senator Lekan Mustapha for the senatorial seat, said Daniel had not done enough to justify the allocation of more financial resources.

"When are we going to stop deceiving ourselves? How can he (Daniel) be calling for more money for the state and local governments when the people are still expecting the evidence of what they (local and state governments) have collected over the months? It is pure deceit,? the AC chieftain said.

Daniel, during the meeting of the governors of the SouthWest with the representatives of traditional rulers, had joined his colleagues in calling for the institutionalisation of the allocation of the greater percentage of the nation's financial resources to the state and local governments.

The move, the governors agreed, would fasttrack the development and transformation of the grass roots.

They claimed that the two tiers of government were closer to the people than the government at the centre.

Adegbuyi, however, noted that he was not opposed to more money to the states and local governments, the states should concentrate on gaining autonomy, which would facilitate the development of the country.

He faulted the leaders in the country for believing that money would solve every problem without developing the ideas that would get the people out of the economic woods.

Adegbuyi said, "Developed countries of the world don't rely heavily on money allocation but on ideas to develop. What is the resources that Germany as a country has but it is a developed country today.

?With the ideas of the peoples Democratic Party that money answers all things, it is understandable that the governors are calling for more money.

?But if you don't have ideas, no matter the amount of money you sink into a project, it will fail.

"The Integrated Power Project has failed because it was based on the same money philosophy and not on ideas.

?Senator Bola Tinubu tried the power project (as governor of Lagos State), it succeeded to some level because it was based on ideas before money was introduced, too."