Whatever happened to Kano’s council funds?
President Goodluck Jonathan made the revelation himself when he read at a rally in Kano on April 15 from a summary of distribution of revenue allocation to Kano local councils. From June to December 2011 the councils received N57.8 billion, in 2012 they received N85.6 billion, in 2013 they were allocated N92.5 billion and from […]
President Goodluck Jonathan made the revelation himself when he read at a rally in Kano on April 15 from a summary of distribution of revenue allocation to Kano local councils. From June to December 2011 the councils received N57.8 billion, in 2012 they received N85.6 billion, in 2013 they were allocated N92.5 billion and from June to March 2014 they got N19.6 billion.
These monies represent the gross statutory allocation, distribution from foreign excess crude savings account (augmentation), deduction, distribution of N7.617 billion being refund by NNPC, special distribution from foreign excess crude saving account and VAT allocation. The present administration in the state cannot say it used all these monies for the urban renewal projects.
Two billion naira was budgeted for each local government area for this project; and if you multiply N2 billion by 44 local government council, it will give you a total sum of N88 billion. You should remember that from June 2011 to March 2014 these councils were allocated N255 billion; and if you subtract N88 billion from N255 billion, you will have the remaining of N167 billion. So where is the remaining N167 billion? These projects have stopped and cannot be completed before the administration winds up in 2015.
I pity Kano local government councils, as they always go the governor cap in hand for financial assistance. These funds are strictly meant for the development of local government areas, and for whatever reasons they should not be diverted to state projects as it is now the case. They were diverted for projects such as construction of flyovers, Dakata-Bela road, technical colleges and schools of Islamic studies.
For example, the flyovers, which are all sited at Kano metropolis, are to be constructed at N9.68 billion. And, each of the 44 local government areas contributed N220 million to make up that total sum. The technical colleges to be constructed in all the 44 local government are state government projects but each local government had to contribute N160 million for it. Kwankwaso should explain the whereabouts of funds specifically allocated to the state government since the council funds are being used to do all these projects.
Lawan Abdulkadir Dantani wrote in from Hagagawa, Bichi, Kano State.