Masari: Why Katsina LGAs remain in chain

Governor Aminu Bello Masari has said that despite his promise to unchain the local government system in Katsina State, the stakeholders have not been giving him the need cooperation to achieve the goal.

The governor said this in Abuja at an interactive session with the indigenes of Katsina State living in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

“You might have heard from people visiting you or you must have read in the newspapers that we have problem with the local government system. Part of the reasons we are worried about local government system is because we promised that we are going to unchain the local government system.

“To keep to our promise, we must be sure of genuine wage bill of local governments; the challenges are too many and the cooperation from that sector is not forthcoming. So, we are still battling to see how we can free the system.

“To give you a simple example, in March, the total commitment of the entire 34 local governments in Katsina State stood at N3.78bn and the total allocation from the federal account was N3.6bn. So, it means that to fulfill the obligation of local government system, the state government will have to give additional N100m or more to make up,” he said.

The governor also said some states would have collapsed without the interventions from the federal government.

He said his state, which was in deplorable condition when he assumed mantle of leadership in 2015, received four interventions from the federal government.

He said from the first bailout funds of N11.8bn that was used in the payment of pension and gratuity of state civil servants up to December 2015, local government claimants got up to September 2015 after going through a verification committee.