Ita Enang
State Governors are to be blamed for some of the challenges being witnessed across the country. Ita Enang, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, made the assertion during an interview on NTA on Monday.
The Presidential aide alleged that Governors in the country had exercised powers beyond what the constitution envisaged for them, adding that if funds meant for local governments were disbursed, the challenges currently being witnessed across the country would be curbed.
Observed Enang: “The governors have exercised so much powers that are beyond what the constitution envisaged for them — beyond what the law gave to them.
“The president has kept within his powers as president and does not interfere with the funds of the state governments while the governors have interfered and kidnapped the funds of the local governments through what is called the state/local government joint account.
“They don’t even give to the local governments the funds that they realise as internally generated revenue, which is why the joint account was made.
“Now, the insecurity problem we have today, the governors cannot escape the criticism of the people because everybody is a witness.
“If the governors allow the funds of the local governments to get to the local governments, they would have been able to at least capture within their net, certain persons of certain class at that local government level. This way a lot of ill-happenings in the country will be curbed”.
