Kogi-born activist, Comrade Usman Okai Austin has berated the State House of Assembly for passing the bill for the establishment of Confluence University of Science and Technology.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, Okai said the lawmakers failed to adhere to Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) guidelines.
He wondered how the state government intend to fund a new university when the existing Kogi State University’s teaching hospital remain underfunded and abandoned.
“Current lawmaker in the Kogi state House Assembly are mere rubber stamp legislators. Posterity will judge them accordingly. The action of the state assembly members was hinged on criminal motive.
“It is illegal for the state to deduct 5% from local government allocation to fund a state project. The state government is only interested in how to divert local government funds.
“It is sad that Kogi State House of Assembly members are archaic and out of tune with current realities. NFIU guidelines reinforced the existence of local government councils as an independent tier of government established by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The amended NFIU guidelines prevents state governments from making withdrawals from local governments’ funds.
“The new guidelines which took effect on June 1, 2019 barred governors from interfering with statutory allocations accruing to the local governments directly from the Federation Account.
“The guidelines titled: ‘NFIU enforcement and guidelines to reduce crime vulnerabilities created by cash withdrawal from Local Government funds throughout Nigeria,’ imposed a daily N500, 000 cash transaction limit on all the 774 local governments. It also barred banks, financial institutions, public officers and other stakeholders from tampering with local government statutory allocations. The NFIU vowed to deal with individuals and firms abetting the diversion of the funds. It warned that defaulters will face international and local sanctions, such as likely blacklist of erring governors and the Chief Executive Officers of the affected banks; shutdown of any erring bank; and watch-list of violators in 160 countries where they cannot transact business or pay bills.
“It is unfortunate that this is coming at a time people are clamouring for local government autonomy.
“The government action is only designed and aimed at achieving political gains,” he said.
Okai stated that the decision of the state lawmakers is “completely reckless and subservient to the whims and caprices of the unpopular leadership in Kogi state in the last four and half years.”
“This is a state that had witnessed exodus of notable and highly recognised academic staff from the Kogi State University over issues related to non payment of salaries but choose to embark on the gigantic projects for political reasons.
“Currently, state and local government workers are on percentage salaries, yet we want to embark on a new university for selfish reasons.”
He described those who mooted the idea of a new university as “enemies of Kogi state”, adding that the new university will not stand the test of time.
