A Professor of Public Administration at the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Prof. Frederick Odo Eze has canvassed strategic restructuring of the monthly local government statutory allocation of 40 per cent for salaries and overhead transferred directly to local governments and 60 per cent for capital projects diverted into a newly proposed federal grants board.
 
He stated that while the 40 per cent directly transferred to local governments would strictly be used for personnel and operational needs to maintain administrative stability, the 60 per cent for capital projects would be directed to projects in health, education, water supply and rural infrastructure.
 
Eze, who delivered the 60th inaugural lecture of ESUT, stated that the revolutionary policy framework which he named the “Eze Model” of federal revenue utilisation would make for sustainable grassroots development and solve certain challenges plaguing the local council system in Nigeria.
 
The erudite professor, who spoke on the topic: “Beyond the autonomy question, local government resource allocation and utilisation in Nigeria:  Changing the narrative”, stated that the local council remains the perennial sick baby in the government structure of Nigeria, despite Supreme Court victories affirming direct allocations, among others.
 
He noted that joint account allocations, misappropriation, diversion, state-level interference, caretaker committees, and grand corruption have continued to suffocate grassroots development.
 
Eze, who noted that the “Eze Model” can be adopted by the state governments in Nigeria without recourse to any amendments to the 1999 Constitution, added that it would reduce to the barest minimum the amount of free-floating funds susceptible to grand corruption in the local council system.

He said: “It will ensure a bottom-up approach to local council administration as the communities are enabled to identify the projects that meet their peculiar needs in a prioritised manner.
 
“If the model is sustained through a ten-year period, most of the communities in Nigeria shall adequately receive basic infrastructure. This will significantly improve living conditions at the grassroots, thereby reversing rural/urban migration. It will also trigger improved economic activities throughout the country, leading to significant poverty reduction in the medium to long term.’