LG Chairman Opens up on Financial Autonomy Bill, Vows to Deliver 7 Health Centres
- Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi has reacted to the financial and administrative autonomy bills for local government
- The Agege local government chairman noted that they have the potential for better service delivery with autonomies
- Egunjobi said under his administration everything is being done to deliver top-class social and economic infrastructure
The chairman of Agege local government in Lagos state, Ganiyu Kola Egunjobi, has disclosed that his administration is in the process of delivering seven health centres across constituencies.
Egunjobi made this declaration in an interview session with the media as he also airs his opinion on the financial and administrative autonomy bills for councils.
Source: Twitter
In a statement made available to Legit.ng, the LG chairman said four of the health facilities are already in place, while three others will be established and fully equipped.
He said:
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“Here in Agege, particularly under my administration, we are doing our bit. We are in the process of delivering seven health centres across all the constituencies.
“Right now, we have four on the ground and in a few days' time, we will complete the construction of two new ones and equip them. We operate a free school shuttle service for pupils of public schools, which has helped to scale back dropouts and truancy among pupils in the council area.
“We also distributed thousands of chairs, desks, and uniforms to pupils in our public primary schools. Our intervention in infrastructure includes: construction of classes in those schools, several roads with drainages, sank boreholes across all the constituencies, and provided generator sets to power them.”
When asked about his opinion on the financial and administrative autonomy bills for local government which are two of the 44 bills the National Assembly transmitted to State Assemblies for consideration, Egunjobi said:
“I have been an advocate of an independent local government not tied to the aprons of state governments. It is not for the sake of wielding influence as council authority but you know any privilege in law would come with responsibility.
“We have the potential for better service delivery if we have financial and administrative autonomies. It means we would be able to maximize our capacity to generate revenue and our share of the monthly allocation would come directly to us. "To whom much is given", they say "much is expected."
“We would be in a better position to deliver top-class social and economic infrastructure. It's important that we don't lose sight of the fact that authority at the council is the closest to the people and know where the shoe pinches the generality of the people.
“I’m convinced the preponderance of the State House of Assemblies are in support of the two bills and getting the imprimatur of two-thirds or 24 of assemblies will be a cakewalk.”
Basic healthcare provision fund: Nigeria health watch organises town hall meeting
In a previous report by Legit.ng, Dukpa, a community in Gwagwalada Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja came alive as a town hall meeting organised by the Nigeria Health Watch gave the residents an opportunity to interact with government officials in charge of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF).
The BHCPF is a federal and state-funded initiative that is a component of the National Health Act of 2014, which called for better investment within the Nigerian health sector. It was signed into the 2019 fiscal budget by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018.
The BHCPF is predominantly financed through an annual grant from the federal government of not less than one per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (total federal revenue before it is shared to all tiers of government).
Source: Legit.ng
