President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday indicated that governors steal from local government council allocations.
The President, who spoke extempore after delivering his speech at the presidential parley for members of the Senior Executive Course 44 (2022) of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) at the State House, underscored that personal integrity is fundamental in the operations of government.
He recalled an instance of how a state governor would receive allocation on behalf of council areas in his state only to remit half of such allocation to the council chairmen.
“If the money from the Federal Government to the States 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,” Buhari said.
“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.”
These actions, he said, portrayed the sort of corrupt practices that is now symptomatic of Nigeria in dispensing resources meant for local council administrations, thereby undermining development.
Buhari, in his address, congratulated the members of the Senior Executive Course 44 on the successful completion of their course. He challenged them to revitalise and reinvigorate leadership at the various levels of establishments.
