“If the money from the Federation Account to the State is about N100 million, N50 million will be sent to the Chairman but he will sign that he received N100 million. The Governor will pocket the balance and share it with whoever he wants to share it with.”

Those are the words of President Muhammdu Buhari while slamming state Governors over what he described as their unfair treatment of the administration at the local government level across the country.

The President spoke after delivering his speech at an event hosted for members of the Senior Executive Course 44 (2022) of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Thursday.

He said it beats anyone’s imagination how some state governors would collect money on behalf of local government areas in their states, only to remit just half of such allocation to the Council chairmen, who would further deplete the remittance in further pilfering of public resources.

The President, however, related the development to the question of lack of integrity in the character of many of those holding such public offices as those of governorship and local government council chairmanship.

He added that such actions are rather despicable and speak of the height of corruption in the country.

Buhari’s statement comes barely 24 hours after the federal government blamed the high poverty rate in the country on the failure of the State governors to contribute their quota of development responsibilities.

Buhari narrated his personal experience on stemming the tide of   corruption in the local government system after the presentation of the report of NIPSS SEC 44.

 After listening to comments on the Course 44 presentation, themed ‘‘Strengthening Local Governance in Nigeria: Challenges, Options and Opportunities”, by some members of the Federal Executive Council, who aired their personal views on enhancing the autonomy of local governments, the President narrated his own experience on the treatment of local governments by some State governments.

 ‘‘I found it necessary to digress after reading my speech and this digression is as a result of my personal experience.

‘‘What they did, this is my personal experience, if the money from the Federation Account to the State is about N100 million, N50 million will be sent to the Chairman but he will sign that he received N100 million. The Governor will pocket the balance and share it with whoever he wants to share it with.

‘‘And then the Chairman of the local government must see how much he must pay in salaries and to hell with development. When he pays the salaries of the bigman, the balance he will put in his pocket.

‘‘This is what's happening. This is Nigeria. It’s a terrible thing; you cannot say the person who was doing this is not educated.’’

President Buhari urged public office holders to be guided by their conscience and personal integrity wherever they find themselves.

He pledged that the recommendations contained in the presentation of SEC 44 will be painstakingly studied by the Government with the view to implementing its recommendations.

Declaring that his administration has done so much in building trust between the government and the people, the President noted that the report would largely assist in the provision of good governance to the people at the grassroots levels and by extension win back their trust in government.

‘‘It is obvious that government cannot afford to pay lip-service to the recommendations contained in this report.

‘‘I assure you that the Report will be treated with the seriousness and urgency it deserves. Government will study the report with the view to implementing the carefully detailed recommendations,’’ he said.