Anambra State governor, Prof. Charles Soludo of Anambra State has reacted to the Supreme Court’s judgment regarding financial autonomy for local governments stating that their resources need to go directly to them.
Governor Soludo who emphasized the need for transparency, accountability and utilization of resources to assist in development acknowledged that Anambra State has not held local government elections in a while, but he reassured that his administration is committed to conducting elections.
He highlighted his administration’s efforts to ensure resources reach local governments, paying teachers, pensioners and health workers.
The governor gave his reaction in a chat with correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He affirmed that the people’s money must get to the grassroots to be applied to their development needs.
The Anambra State governor said: “The Supreme Court is supreme. It is the final authority. As a democrat, I believe in the rule of law. And once the Supreme Court has spoken it has spoken.
“And I understand I mean, tonight, I think the Governors Forum is meeting to review this. I haven’t seen the document myself. I’ve been extremely, very busy all through the day but I’ve seen snippets of it.
“But at a fundamental level, yes, we need resources to get down to the grassroots and we need the people’s money to work for them at all levels, whether at the federal or the state and the local government.
“We need to promote accountability. We need to promote transparency in the utilization of public resources at all levels, to be able to lift the burden of the common man.”
On the implication of the judgement which suggests that only elected local government council officials would control resources against the backdrop of states such as Anambra without elected councils, the governor said though it was his promise to the people to conduct local government election, it has not been possible because of litigation.
He explained, “When I was elected into office, that’s one of the things I promised our people because in Anambra, we haven’t had, to be honest with you, I think the first local government election we had was in 1998 or something thereabout and then the next one was in 2014 or 2013.
“And so for me, I promised the people of Anambra that we’re going to have local government election, and I stated that in my inaugural speech. We’ve just passed the Independent Electoral Commission law of Anambra State and we’re putting together the institutions to be able to organize that. It is a promise I made and when I make a promise, I am serious about keeping it.
“And even the way that has been run so far, at least under my administration, the resources of the local government, we’ve made sure that the resources get down to the local governments to address their staff, I mean paying teachers, paying the pensioners, and paying primary health workers and so on and so forth.
“And so, for my state, I mean, which is the other thing that is peculiar, is that there has been lingering litigation, for example, that stopped local government elections in the past and that particular litigation is still in the courts, so to speak. We’re going to see how we handle all of that and to organise a local government election as appropriate.
“I’m a believer in having a democratic system. Like I said, I made a firm commitment to that and I don’t say what I will not do.”
