http://dailytrust.com.ng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=160351:double-jeopardy-for-emergency-rule-lgs-no-salaries-for-workers-as-fg-ignores-senate&catid=2:lead-stories&Itemid=8
Double jeopardy for emergency rule LGs - No salaries for workers as FG ignores Senate
Written by Hamza Idris (Maiduguri), Onimisi Alao & Mahmud Lalo (Jos), Hamisu Kabir Matazu (Damaturu), Aliyu M. Hamagam (Minna) & Abdul-Rahman Abubakar (Abuja) Monday, 23 April 2012 05:04

Government activities have run aground in the 15 local councils where state of emergency has been declared because the Federal Government has seized their fund allocations for four months, investigations by Daily Trust show.

No salaries have been paid in most of the affected areas for the past three months, worsening life conditions for people who have also been suffering curtailed freedoms and other consequences of insecurity and emergency rule.

The local government areas are Jos North, Jos South, Barkin-Ladi and Riyom in Plateau; Maiduguri Metropolitan, Ngala, Bama, Biu and Jere in Borno; Damaturu, Geidam, Potiskum, Gujba and Bade in Yobe; and Suleja, Niger State.


Since December 31 when President Jonathan declared a state of emergency on the councils, in the wake of incessant violence, they have not received their federal allocations on which most of their activities rely.

The funds, totalling about N13 billion, are being held in spite of a Senate resolution passed last month, asking the government to release the monies to avoid worsening the security situation.

No official reason has been given by the Presidency or the Federal Ministry of Finance on why the funds are being withheld. But a chairman of the one of the affected areas told Daily Trust that they were told the development was because of “orders from above.”

No salaries for workers

Interim chairman of Barkin Ladi, Mr Emmanuel Loman, told Daily Trust in Jos that the seizure of his council’s monies was a “terrible” situation.

“We’ve not been given any monthly allocation since December and the situation for us is terrible,” Loman said last week. “What is the essence of the state of emergency when even the resources we were utilising in normal time are not available now that we need them more? The situation is bad because we can do hardly anything.”

“We’ve not been paying salaries to council workers because we don’t have the money. And it’s not just that people are suffering; it is also that you as the boss can’t insist on workers doing their job because you lack the moral courage to do so, after all you are not paying their salary,” he added.

He said he relies on help from “stakeholders” to run the council.

“Stakeholders like state and National Assembly members, commissioners and special advisers, party leaders, and such people have been doing their best; they rally round to come up with resources when we have to carry out certain statutory functions, such as when we had to do the recent congress at our level,” Loman said.

In his reaction, Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang’s spokesman Pam Ayuba said the condition of the affected LGAs was “tasking” the state government.

“If Federal Government would declare a state of emergency as it has done, you would expect that it would even double financial resources for the security needs of the areas affected, but the opposite has been the case, as we are seeing,” he said.

“A hungry worker is an angry worker, and for this and other reasons, all people of goodwill hope that the Federal Government will do what it needs to do to normalise the situation,” Ayuba added.

The situation is no better in Suleja, Niger State, where an official told Daily Trust that staff salaries have not been paid for three consecutive months. He said activities “have been absolutely paralysed” in the LGA, even though the state government was helping it “to attend to some pressing issues.”

When contacted, commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Yusuf Garba Tagwai, said the state government had been appealing for the release of the funds but to no avail.

Tagwai confirmed that salaries were not paid in Suleja LGA.

‘Hunger has caught up with our people’

In Maiduguri, findings at the Borno State Ministry of Finance show that the withheld funds of the five LGAs for the month of December, January and February stood at over N3.3 billion. Figures for March were not available.

Chairmen and senior officials of the affected councils said the non-release of the funds was compounding problems in the areas.

Some of the hardships brought about by the emergency declaration were curfews, closure of international borders, as well as harassment by security men.

“We are only surviving under the magnanimity of the state government. Governor Kashim Shettima has ensured that we did not default in the payment of monthly salary of civil servants and other administrative challenges,” Yusuf Adamu, the caretaker chairman of Biu LGA, said.

“If not for the intervention of the state government, our people will not even have water to drink because we cannot afford to buy diesel for dozens of generators to pump water from the boreholes in our towns and villages,” Adamu added.

“But despite the intervention of the state government, we are not unmindful of the fact that other developmental programmes that will improve the lots of the people are suffering because the fact is that governance is not all about paying salary. People need good health, affordable education, houses, construction of rural roads and other basic privileges of existence…we cannot do all these things without getting our constitutionally approved allocations,” he said.

Two senior council officials of Ngala and Bama told Daily Trust that the state of emergency was “malnourishing” their people.

“The aim of the measure (emergency rule) has been defeated because hunger has caught up with our people. The borders are closed and businesses between Nigeria and Chad, Cameroon, Niger and even Central African Republic has collapsed and poverty has increased,” the official from Ngala said.

His counterpart in Bama recalled that customs and immigrations offices as well as a police station were attacked recently at Banki town. “If these things would be happening, what is the essence of the state of emergency and the denial of funds to local authorities to address issues relating to poverty which is the major source of insecurity?” he queried.

For the four councils affected in Yobe State, about N2.8 billion is being withheld for December, January and February, officials in Damaturu said last week. No figures were available for March allocation.

“We have not been collecting a dime from the Federal Government,” an official said. “We held meeting with the governor recently and the commissioner of Justice was directed to go and table our grievance to the Federal Government.”

Senate resolution ignored

After a story in Daily Trust of March 13 about the seizure of the LGAs funds for the months of December and January, the Senate passed a resolution asking the Federal Government to release the monies. But this has not been complied with, as the allocations for the month of February were similarly withheld.

Mover of the motion that led to the Senate resolution, Senator Ahmed Lawal, said it was “uncharacteristic” for the executive to disregard a resolution of the Senate.

“It is very uncharacteristic in a legislative democracy for the executive to disregard a resolution of the legislature, especially such a popular resolution that deals with the plight of the affected people,” he told Daily Trust in Abuja last week.

“I believe the President will consider the sufferings of the ordinary people in the affected Local Governments and see the need to immediately release their funds.”

Asked if the Senate would consider another step, Lawan said the Senate has played its constitutional role and can take no other action. “As a legislature there is nothing we can do anymore because we have passed a resolution that the allocation should be released what is left now is for the public to insist that the executive should do what is right. We have done our part, the executive should be reminded to respect the law and release the allocations.”