A Kwara-based prominent politician, who is the candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) for the Kwara North Senatorial District, Dr. Kolo Baba Jiya, has berated some governors over their refusal to grant financial autonomy to their respective local governments.
The senatorial aspirant bared his mind while fielding questions from journalists in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital.
On the refusal of some state governors to grant the local governments financial freedom, Jiya simply said: “Posterity will judge everybody, I don’t want to talk much about it, whatever you do today, you will be judged by it tomorrow.”
Jiya emphasised that granting the local governments financial autonomy is very paramount to the governing of the country because they’re the closest to the people at the grassroots, asserting that 70 percent of Nigeria’s population reside in villages and local areas.
He said: “Autonomy for the local governments is paramount because most people live in villages, if you look at the population of those people in villages and rural areas, they’re much more than those in towns, 70 percent of the population of this country are in the local areas. Now and sadly too, monies that are meant for the local governments are being tampered with or diverted,” he lamented.
Speaking on the role he’s planning to play in ensuring financial freedom for the local governments and preventing their money from being tampered with or diverted, Jiya expressed optimism that if the law preventing Governors from tampering with the funds is passed, it would be binding on the governors.
He said: “I’m not representing my state alone, I’m representing Nigeria as a whole and whatever I legislate in the Senate won’t be for Kwara alone but for the entire country, if the law is passed that no Governor should touch the local government money, then it will be binding and the door of the court is open for erring governors to be challenged there.”
Speaking on the likelihood of his party forming a merger with another party in order to increase their chances during the general elections in 2023, Dr. Jiya expressed support to the idea of his party forming a strong merger with another party.
He said: ‘’If merger is the only way, so be it, after all this present government came in through merger, if they didn’t merge, probably they wouldn’t have won the election and the constitution permits that. If that is another way for my party to win and there is a strong merger, then so shall it be and I think I will support that and that would be a good step forward.”
