Bayelsa Having 8-LGAs While Others Have 44 Is An Injustice – Diri

Bayelsa Having 8-LGAs While Others Have 44 Is An Injustice – Diri

Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, has voiced his concerns over the unequal distribution of local government areas (LGAs) in Nigeria, labeling it an injustice. According to Governor Diri, the disparity where Bayelsa has only eight LGAs while other states have as many as 44 is unfair. He asserted that Bayelsa deserves no fewer than 30 LGAs to rectify this imbalance.

Governor Diri shared his thoughts on this issue in a Facebook post on Saturday. He emphasized that states should have the autonomy to create and manage their own local governments without taking resources from other states, which he described as “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

“In truth, Bayelsa State has not been fairly treated in the creation of Local Government Areas to the extent that today, we still have just 8 local government areas as opposed to some other states with 44 and 40 local government areas. That to us is a clear injustice! And our position from the beginning of this discussion has been that states should take charge of the number of local governments they can create and cater for,” Diri stated.

He called for urgent action to correct this disparity, stressing that Bayelsa deserves at least 30 LGAs. Governor Diri also welcomed the Supreme Court’s recent judgement granting autonomy to local government areas across the country. He noted that Bayelsa has always respected local government autonomy and even augmented the councils’ finances before the landmark judgement.

“As a government, while we have received the decision of the Supreme Court on the financial autonomy of the Local Government Councils, it must be noted that my administration has been practising the autonomy in principle because we do not tamper with the allocations to the Local Government Areas. Rather, the State Government augments the allocation in a number of the LGAs where they are not able to pay salaries to their workers,” Diri said.

He added that reforms in Bayelsa’s LGAs have led to financial stability, allowing local government chairmen to meet their obligations, carry out projects, and save funds each month.