Paul Osuyi, Asaba

Delta Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, has renewed his call for a review of existing revenue allocation formula in favour of states and local governments.

The governor described the review as expedient to reflect prevailing socio-economic realities in the country.

Okowa made the call,yesterday, when he received  National Executive Council members of Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) led by the National President, Mr. Kolade Alabi, in Asaba.

He said local governments administration was growing and that it was important to get them stabilised financially so that they can impact on the lives at the grassroots.

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“I believe that local government administration must be autonomous and here in Delta, we have never tampered with their funds, rather we assist them and provide bailout funds for them on monthly basis to augment their payment of salaries.

“We have generally as a nation made local government administration take up serious responsibilities, like payment of local government council staff and primary school teachers salaries without providing necessary funds for them. We need to have a re-work of the revenue allocation formula because none of the arms of government should shy away from that.

“We need to provide funding so that they can reach out to the people and the people will feel their impact. The Federal Government is an important tier of government, but they can’t perform well in terms of reaching out to various communities because of issues of monitoring and evaluation.There is a need to re-work the laws of this nation in such a way that we are able to redirect governance the way it ought to be done,” he said.

Alabi, the ALGON leader, informed the governor that they wee not a pressure group or a contract-awarding group, but partners in developmental governance.

On teachers’ salary increment, Alabi said ALGON was not against it, but pointed out that states and local governments should have been part of the decision.