Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno, has welcomed the Supreme Court’s judgment granting financial autonomy to local government areas but expressed concerns about its effective implementation.
He made the remark while speaking to Government House correspondents at the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo, upon his return to the state from a foreign trip on Monday evening.
Governor Eno said the judgement granting autonomy to the third tier of government brings about the challenge of ensuring prompt payment of salaries and emoluments to local government workers, including primary school teachers.
He said, “Since I assumed office, I’ve not touched any funds allocated to the local governments. The only challenge I envisage now, which we have to sit down and find a way around is how the local government workers would be paid promptly? How will primary school teachers be paid promptly? How do we clear the backlog that we have? I pray that we find a way around this.”
While acknowledging the Supreme Court’s verdict as sacrosanct, Governor Eno said that his administration has consistently allocated funds to local governments without interference, and has channelled resources into offsetting arrears of gratuities, pensions, and salaries.
He urged local governments to take responsibility for prompt payment of salaries and emoluments to avoid burdening successive governments with arrears.
He said, “The Supreme Court has made pronouncements. That’s the final court of the land, but for us in Akwa Ibom, honestly, I don’t see us having any issues. For me, this is a welcome development because I know how much we, as a state, support the local governments.
“Our ARISE Agenda is also centred around developing the local government areas, so with this judgement, I feel relieved, but my concern is how they would bear the brunt of the autonomy.”
