From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
Kebbi State Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu has signed the 2022 budget of N166.985 billion into law.
Bagudu, who signed the appropriate bill into law at Government House, Birnin Kebbi, after he was presented with the completion of the bill by the Speaker, House of Assembly, Hon Muhammed Abubakar Lolo, said Kebbi State is not against local government autonomy but said, without expunging Section 7 from Nigeria’s Constitution, it will remain under state Houses of Assembly.
Speaking on the passage of the budget, Bagudu noted that it was under the APC government that the budget implementation has been restored from January to December, as against prolonged delay of implementation.
When the APC government returned budget implementation from January to December, many people will not see it as a remarkable achievement. It is because we have had a situation when the budget was passed in July which was supposed to be implemented in January.
“But with the determination of President Muhamadu Buhari, the budget implementation has been returned and the World Bank encouraged this too. Today, both federal and almost all the states across the federation pass their budgets between January and December. I think this is a commendable achievement,” the governor said.
While speaking on the local government autonomy, Judiciary independence, Bagudu said that Kebbi State is not against local government autonomy and those states that do not favour the autonomy should not be blackmailed.
According to him, “last week, we had a meeting with the Speakers of all the Houses of Assembly on the constitution amendment and one of the things we discussed is constitution amendment.
“It is the issue that means different things to different people and nobody should be blackmailed. We collectively say that there should be state policing because, in each state of the federation, there are many security outfits that are operating.
“As we speak, there is no legislation guiding their operations. What one state is doing is different from others.
“Equal, I felt that National Assembly should also provide legislation where there would be comprehensive reform of the judiciary. Our judiciary is now controlled in dual ways. What we feel is that state assemblies should be given the power to direct the appointment, and retirement age emolument of the state judiciary officers.
“If the state assemblies can impeach governors, these assemblies too should have the power to remove anybody who is being paid by the state where he or she is working.
“We are not against Local government autonomy. Most people were confused about two things. Section 7 of the Constitution made the LGs subsidiary of the State. Because in Section 7 of the Constitution, it made the state Houses of Assembliy make laws for the existence of the LGAs.
“As long as that power remained, I support it will remain. It is not the power for the governors, it is given to the State House of Assemblies and I am in support of that power to remain under the states assembly,” he said.
Bagudu added that, if the people are calling for LGAs autonomy, they are calling for Section 7 of the Nigeria constitution to be amended which the National Assembly has not reviewed.
*As we speak, that is not what the National Assembly did. If people are saying LGAs should be credited from what is coming from the Federal Government, that is financial autonomy and I am not against it,” he said.