Kabiru Jarimi, the former Secretary of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) in Kaduna State, has refuted former Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s assertions that he did not deduct funds from the 23 Local Government Councils during his tenure.
Jarimi, who served under El-Rufai, characterized the former governor’s statements as misleading, asserting that local councils experienced routine deductions from their allocations for various reasons.
In an interview with journalists over the weekend, he expressed surprise at El-Rufai’s claims, emphasizing that these deductions occurred without the councils’ consent, particularly affecting local governments in Southern Kaduna.
We never received our full allocations under El-Rufai’s administration. His government continually implemented policies that resulted in unnecessary fund deductions. I even contemplated resigning at one point because we often found ourselves with insufficient funds for operational expenses after paying salaries,” Jarimi stated.
He noted that while El-Rufai defended the deductions as essential for covering workers’ salaries, the state government employed alternative methods to extract additional funds from local councils.
Jarimi highlighted the establishment of the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority, Zaria Metropolitan Authority, and Kafanchan Municipal Authority as mechanisms that undermined local governments.
Salaries were divided 60-40 between the capital authorities and the surrounding local governments.
In Kaduna South, we faced deductions for sanitation, requiring us to remit funds to the Kaduna Capital Territory Authority (KCTA) each month,” he explained.
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