The 36 state governments (excluding their respective local governments) received a total statutory allocations of N1.05tn between January and August this year.
Statutory allocation is the allocation from the Federal Government that goes to each state as a means of revenue assistance from the Federal Government.
This was just as members of the House of Representatives decried a situation where local governments are short changed by state governments. They also called for the conduct of council elections and financial autonomy for them.
Data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics indicated that the lowest statutory allocation of N62.26bn was allocated to the states in January 2022.
They received their highest statutory allocation of N232.5bn in August, according to an analysis of figures released by the bureau.
In February, March and April, the states’ statutory allocations were N83.82bn, N124.99bn and N110.27bn, respectively.
They got N93.93bn, N148.5bn and N192.76bn in May, June and July, respectively.
The summation of the eight months’ statutory allocations for the state governments, excluding allocations to the local governments was therefore N1.05tn.
Speaking to Sunday PUNCH, a member of the House, who was miffed by the deductions being made by states from the LGs’ funds, referred one of our correspondents to the data,
The lawmaker said, “All the governors are issuing statements denying tampering with the fund. If you click on LG details on the Excel sheet, you will see the breakdown of monthly allocations to the LGs.”
Another member of the House, Adejoro Adeogun, stated that until governors stopped appointing caretaker committees instead of conducting elections and allow the state Houses of Assembly to pass bills to grant autonomy to the local governments, states would continue to spend funds meant for the councils.
Adeogun said, “What is spinning the whole controversy is the President’s allegation that states are taking local government’ funds. Many local governments don’t even know what goes to them. I think the President ordered that the funds should be paid directly to the local governments and not to the states. What happens in most of the states now, with the exemption of a few, is that they are asking the chairmen to return the money to a common purse and then share according to the governors’ formula.”
Another member of the House, who spoke on condition of anonymity, faulted the denials by the states on local government funds.
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