Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has called on states to focus more on productive activities that can boost internally generated revenues.
Makinde made this call while reacting to the Supreme Court judgment that granted financial autonomy to local governments. During a meeting with the National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Dr. Chris Iziguzo, at the secretariat in Agodi, Ibadan, Makinde stated that the Supreme Court judgment does not impact Oyo State.
“Since I came in, we have conducted local government elections twice, and there’s been no caretaker at any time after the first election. We planned and allowed the election process to proceed smoothly, so it’s not a big problem for us,” he said.
The governor expressed concern over the inability of many local government areas to generate revenue outside of federal allocations, emphasizing the need to increase productivity. “It is a big shame for this country that we cannot feed ourselves. We should focus on initiatives that restore confidence in our people and ensure the country is back on the path of growth and economic progress,” he added.
Makinde highlighted that the core issue in Nigeria is a lack of productivity. “Whatever we’re sharing in Abuja through FAAC, you want to have value for it, but our real problem is productivity,” he explained.
During the visit, Iziguzo invested Makinde as the Grand Patron of NUJ, Oyo State Council, recognizing his immense support for the union over the years.
Pathway News reports that in a landmark judgment on Thursday, the Supreme Court ordered the Federal Government to start direct payment of local government funds to their exclusive accounts. Justice Emmanuel Agim, in his lead judgment, criticized the state governments for their decades-long refusal to grant financial autonomy to local governments, noting that the 774 local government councils should manage their funds themselves and that only democratically elected local government administrations are entitled to these funds, not caretaker committees.
