Frontline All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial aspirant in Osun 2026 race, Kunle Adegoke, SAN, popularly known as K-Rad has posited that some Governors are not making the effective use of huge allocations coming to their states since May 29, 2023 that President Bola Tinubu took over power.
According to the prominent legal luminary, the Governors have received more funds in excess of what they received under the previous administrations of President Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan.
Adegoke revealed on Saturday in an exclusive interview with The Tribune Newspapers.
Asked if he was satisfied with how Governors are utilising humongous allocations to states after President Tinubu’s fuel subsidy removal, he said:
“Most of the Governors have not effectively utilized the funds coming into their coffers since President Bola Tinubu came into office. These are States that were unable to pay salaries, pensions or deliver on infrastructural development before the President came in not to talk of re-engineering their internally generated revenues to be able to create wealth, banish hunger and make life more abundant for the people.
“Many of the Governors have received more funds in six months in excess of what they received in four years under the previous administrations of Buhari or Jonathan. However, many of them have failed to utilise the funds to improve on the living conditions of the people and what they have only done is to pay salaries, pensions and do make-believe infrastructural developments. They need to invest the excess funds coming into their States’ coffers to improve on their IGR, guarantee agricultural development and output so as to ensure that there is food security, improved healthcare delivery, fantastic improvement in our educational institutions and create genuinely enabling environment for businesses to thrive. The masses today are still crying of hunger despite the funds received by the States. Food security is only possible where State and Local Governments effectively invest in mechanized agriculture. That is why lands in the States are vested in the Governors by the Land Use Act to be held in trust for the people. The Federal Government, in whom no land is vested, cannot guarantee food security without the States taking the battle against hunger seriously.”
Expressing his views on the implementation of the Supreme Court judgement on financial autonomy for local governments?, the Osun APC counsel said: “This is a salutary judgment for which the present administration of President Bola Tinubu should be credited for even deeming it necessary to approach the apex Court at all for its determination. It means that the federal government still believes in the rule of law and the institution of the judiciary as the final arbiter in determining disputes and not resorting to self-help.
However, the enforcement and implementation of the judgment have been made a dream with the Governors frustrating same by all manner of stratagems. For decades now, local governments in Nigeria have not enjoyed autonomy and the denial has always been at the instance of the Governors who divert the local government funds which were being passed through them, render democratic local government administration impossible in their domains so that they could have their puppets at the grassroots. Thus, after losing the autonomy battle at the Supreme Court, there is no trick in the textbooks they have not applied in order to ensure that the judgment would not be enforced.”