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Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
State governments have disclosed that monies meant to build roads, schools, hospitals were being diverted to fund and support Federal Government institutions, especially security agencies.
They wonder how the Federal Government with a bigger budget expects them to fund all the agencies domiciled in their states, hence they have called on the government at the center to address the problem of funding or stipulates the role of the state governments in the various programmes.
Secretary to the State Government of Kaduna, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues from other zones said this at the inauguration of Permanent Standing Committee on Inter-Governmental Affairs by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, yesterday.
Mustapha said at the inauguration of the 25-man Inter-Governmental Affairs Committee that it was part of efforts to create coordination and synergy between the three tiers of government.
Lawal, who welcomed the committee, prayed that it will not go the way of other committees that never produced any result or died after just one sitting.
The Kaduna SSG said: “At the state level we have been complaining that the the Federal Government is quite remote to us. The meetings we normally have with SGF doesn’t give us enough opportunity to get across to the ministries like we do now.
“I think we can now interact with them and raise some issues we think can be taken care of.
“For example, I’m sure most of my colleagues will agree with me on this, when you go back to states, we shoulder a lot of Federal Government programmes, in the area of security and other services, you find that the funding from federal government is usually very low.
“So, we have tried to find out what is happening. They have a bigger budget but you find that all the agencies of federal government normally come to the states asking for one thing or the other.”
He said the committee would find out how federal agencies in the states were being funded
“They are always coming to us to say we should do this or that for them. Particularly, in the area of security, we are spending a lot – police, army, Navy, civil Defence, all of them.
“They will tell us that their overhead is N60,000 a month which we think is impossible to carry them along. The police, apart from the salaries, come to us for almost everything they need. This committee is important. I think you need to listen to us because we are carrying the burden of the Federal Government and it is now telling on our infrastructure development. The money meant to build roads, schools, hospitals is now being diverted to fund and support federal government institutions. I think it is important for us to sit down and look at these issues.”
The SGF, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ecological Funds Office, Mrs. Habiba Lawal, noted that the committee was reconstituted after it had become dormant under the defunct Federal Ministry of Special duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs.
