Osun: Youth group decries prolonge withhold of LG funds

.. describes situation as direct threat to residents well-being

A youth group, the Coalition of Concerned Nigerian Citizens (CCNC) has raised serious concerns over the prolonged withholding of Local Government funds meant for Osun State, describing the situation as a direct threat to the wellbeing of millions of residents.

The group gave the Federal Government three days to act and get the issue completely resolved to avoid another nationwide protest to seek people’s rights.

Speaking on Monday, the CCNC spokesperson, Comrade Raufu Sodiq, said that the Federal Government’s failure to release the funds has crippled critical sectors, causing severe suffering among the masses.

Comrade Sodiq stressed that the year-long seizure of the funds has paralyzed activities in local councils secretariats, resulting in declining businesses, and heightened psychological stress among traders and service providers who rely heavily on LG workers for patronage.

He revealed that the ongoing recruitment of teachers in the state has been stalled because primary school fundingmanaged by local governments cannot be sustained without the withheld allocations.

According to him, “The CCNC warns that if the Federal Government fails to act and get this issue completely resolved in within 3 Days, we will be forced to adopt more drastic measures, including confrontation, to seek justice, this will be done Nationwide.

“We urge the Federal government to prioritize the welfare of the masses and release the withheld funds to prevent further suffering and they should not politicize further the local government issue in the Osun state.

‎”CCNC will always stand for justice and protect the rights of our people without looking back, we want to repeat that we will never be allowed to be a tools in the hand of any government, all we want is good governance, effective security and better employment that will aid good living conditions.
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“‎We want to say that with all sense of responsibility that if the federal government administration led by president Bola Ahmed Tinubu do not do the needful we will have no choice than use the last C of activism which is confrontation to seek for justice, we don’t want Osun local government fund politicized any further, and we want to remind the federal government that Osun state is not the only state that have not fully implement the local government autonomy and osun state people should not be made to suffer unnecessarily,”

He, however, said”Our investigation into the education sector revealed a dire situation. The School of Special Needs, which caters to students with unique needs such as blind, deaf, dumb and other similar conditions, is facing a significant challenge. With a funding ratio of 70:30 between local governments and the state government, the unavailability of the 70% from local governments has taken a toll on the welfare of the students, most of the students in the school are now malnourished. The school, which provides boarding facilities, is struggling to provide basic necessities like food, accommodation, and uniforms. The inability to pay debts to food vendors has further exacerbated the situation.
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‎”We also confirm that the withheld local government fund has caused delay in the completion of the recruitment exercise of the teachers because the primary section of the schools are being funded and financed by the local governments funds while the secondary section is being funded by the state government, they claim they can’t do only secondary school recruitment while leaving the primary section as the state government are ready to finance the secondary school,” he added.