Governor Ahmadu Fintiri has accused president Muhammadu Buhari led APC government of being the worst culprit when it comes to illegal deductions of monies belonging to state and local governments.
President Muhammadu Buhari has recently call out state governors whom he accused of diverting local government funds saying that it is responsible for the endemic poverty and underdevelopment in Nigeria.
But reacting, governor Fintiri said it is unwholesome for Buhari to point accusing fingers at the governors while he is presiding over the biggest financial malfeasance being carried out through illegal diversion and deductions of funds meant for State and local government council under a federal system.
He said, “Muhammadu Buhari said some state governors are in the habit of diverting local government funds. But like my colleagues under the Nigerian Governors’ Forum are demanding from the President, to name the state governors, I’m equally challenging him to call out the state governors involved in such act for the sake of his own integrity and his anti-corruption crusade.
“I equally challenge him, if, we must wage a holistic anti-corruption war to amend the constitution of the country to separate the office of Accountant General of the Federal Government and the Accountant General of the Federation.”
Governor Fintiri made the call while speaking, at Jada, the home town of Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, during a campaign engagement of the Adamawa State PDP Presidential and governorship Campaign Council in Jada council.
At the event, the PDP, National Deputy Chairman North Iliya Damagun, Barrister Tahir Shehu, Adamawa PDP state chairman received over 15,000 decampees who had dumped the opposition All Progressive Congress and other political parties, in the state, into the PDP.
President Buhari, had, slammed some state governor’s, who, he did not specifically mention, for tampering with local government funds.
The president in his scathing condemnation of the governors, had accused them of withholding funds meant for local government in a way he said only portrayed them as corrupt and lacking integrity.
Buhari disclosed this in his speech, while he granted, audience to members of the Senior Executive Course 44 (2022) of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
But Governor Fintiri, in what looked like a fierce rejection of President Buhari’s blanket criticism, accused Buhari of being blind to the perfidy under him, as the Federal government is as much culpable of fund diversion.
He therefore urged Buhari to lead by example by ensuring the right thing is done because the FG is the worst culprit of illegal deductions of funds meant for State and local government in the federation.
He said, ” Because the Federal government is the biggest culprit of fund diversion and other financial malfeasance perpetrated by way of illegal and unconstitutional deductions of funds meant for three tiers of government without accountability before the usual monthly federal accounts and allocations committee meetings where funds are shared.
“So if the President wants to lead by example, he should walk his talk by ensuring the Federal Government also does things right.”
According to him, in his home state, of Adamawa, where the immediate past, APC, administration handed over to him a near comatose state, where local government employees were owed over seven Month salaries and the apparatus of governance at that third tier of government was almost grinding to a halt, he was not one to continue on that trajectory by withholding local government funds.
” Today that is no longer the case in Adamawa state as far as local government administration is concerned because the council’s now enjoy autonomy, reversing the decadence of the locust years. But like my colleagues under the Nigerian Governors’ Forum are demanding from the President, to name the state governors, I’m equally challenging him to call out the state governors involved in such act for the sake of his own integrity,” Fintiri maintained.
