LGAs potential security threats – Masari

The dwindling fortunes of local government areas in Nigeria arising from poor financial profiles are rendering them vulnerable to increasing security threats, Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, has said.

Masari who presented a paper at the Institute of Security Studies in Bwari, Abuja, bemoaned the joint account system between states and local government councils.

He said state governments were now paying the price of abusing the joint accounts.

Masari said he was in support of local government autonomy. “We have abused the joint account and we are paying for it dearly now. In Katsina State for instance, we have expended the sum of N9.7 billion to augment what goes to the local governments. Governors that dipped their hands in the joint account are making us pay the price,” he said.

He stressed that unless local governments were granted financial autonomy to transparently manage their resources and reverse the trend, the third tier of government in the country was a security threat.

Masari, who presented a paper titled ‘Executive-Legislature Relations and the Challenges of Democratic Consolidation and Development in Katsina State’, said it was important for the two arms of government to understand the extent and limits of their functions, powers and privileges as assigned in the constitution.

“The perception in many quarters that the legislature must always work in line with the aspirations of the executive is not only wrong but harmful to accountability and democratic consolidation,” he said.

“This perception distorts the principle of separation of powers and undermines that of checks and balances in a presidential democracy,” he added.