Former Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, has expressed concern over Thursday’s Supreme Court judgment affirming local governments’ right to receive monthly allocations directly from the federation account.
The chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party emphasised that despite the court judgment, state Houses of Assembly and the governors will always be a clog in the wheel of local government autonomy.
Fayose said this when he featured as a guest on Sunday’s edition of Channels Television’s Politics Today.
While stressing that nobody from the grassroots can emerge as a local government chairman without the support of a governor, the Ekiti politician said both the court and FG ‘cannot take the baby from the mother.’
He said, “I am not a lawyer. I am a politician and by God’s grace today, I am an elder statesman. While I love and do not believe that any government should take local government funds, may I say to you very clearly this evening that you cannot take the baby from the mother? There is nobody that can become council chairman without a governor. Anybody telling you otherwise is wasting his time.
I think there’s a point in what the Former Governor is saying,Cos even if the Local Government chairman doesn’t receive their monthly allocation there’s no way they can complain to the president.They are more close to the Governor of the state than the president and it’s more easier for them to receive from the Governor than president.