Why I am yet to conduct council election, by Mimiko

Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State has blamed the delay in the conduct of election into local governments on the dwindling revenue from the federation account.
Mimiko, who said elections into the 18 local governments in the state will be conducted before the end of January, 2016, said the government would need not less than N500 million for the exercise.
Speaking at the programme tagged “Mr Governor speaks” aired on state-owned radio and television at the weekend, Mimiko the financial problem facing the country could be tackled if the federal government implement true federalism and cede some of the powers to the federating units.
Mimiko, who said the 1999 Constitution guarantees democratic structures at the third tier, said the dwindling revenue from the federation account made election difficult in the state for now. But assured that election would be held before the end of January.
According to him, there are many natural resources available in each states of the federation that could have generated revenue to the coffers of the states but could not because of the need for federal government approval.
Mimiko said the abundant bitumen available in the southern part of the state could not be tapped by the state government because all natural resources abundant in the state including granites and limestone belong to the federal government.
His words: “Even if you have granite at the back of your house, you cannot blast it without approval from Abuja.
Out of the funds that accrued to the federation account rent from oil and other sources, Mimiko said the federal government alone gets 50 per cent while all the 36 states of the country and 774 local governments shared the rest 50 per cent.
This development, he said, has led to the inability of both the state and local governments to pay salaries of their workforce, saying the amount that the state government gets from the federation account was not enough to pay workers in the state.
He said the total amount the state got from the federal allocation in the month of September was N2.5 billion while the salary of workforce alone gulp N4 billion.
The governor said the federal government is owing the state about N7 billion on some of the federal roads constructed or rehabilitated by the state government.
Mimiko asked for the devolution of power from the centre so that states could have autonomy, saying the structure of Nigeria’s federation does not allow for development at the grassroots levels.