The senator representing Kaduna Central, Sen. Shehu Sani, has said that Nigeria would have become a safer place if governors were mounting the same kind of pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari over security as they were over management of local government funds.
He said this in a tweet on Sunday morning while reacting to the controversies generated by Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) guidelines that effectively stopped governors from having sole authority over funds meant for local governments.
NFIU on May 6 issued the ‘Guidelines to Reduce Vulnerabilities Created by Cash Withdrawals from Local Government Funds throughout Nigeria.’
The guidelines mandates that state and local government joint accounts be operated solely as transit accounts from which funds will be distributed directly to the accounts of the local governments.
Banks were directed to ensure the full implementation of the guidelines with effect from June 1.
Punishment for violators, according to the guidelines, include “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”.
However, some governors challenged the NFIU directive, urging Buhari to revert it while vowing not to respect it should the president fail to accede to their request.
In a May 15 letter to the president, the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) argued that nothing in the NFIU Act 2018 gave the body the powers that it tried to exercise in the guidelines that it released, adding that the unit was acting in excess of its powers and in doing so, it showed complete disregard for the constitution
Also, a Federal High Court, Uyo on Friday declined to grant a request of the Akwa Ibom State Government to stop the implementation of the NFIU guidelines.
Reacting, Sani said, “If the way the Governors are pressuring the President to allow them control the Local Government allocations is the way they are pressuring him over matters of peace & security, the nation could have been a safer place;We must reinforce and support him never to blink on the NFIU.”
See tweet:
If the way the Governors are pressuring the President to allow them control the Local Government allocations is the way they are pressuring him over matters of peace & security,the nation could have been a safer place;We must reinforce and support him never to blink on the NFIU.
— Senator Shehu Sani (@ShehuSani) June 2, 2019
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