GOVERNOR Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State yesterday in Ilorin warned politicians against playing politics with Local Government salaries just as he attributed the problem to the "worst inflated wage bill" apart from the dwindling allocation.

The governor who gave the indication while playing host to Kwara State Chapter of the Church leaders and Ministers Fellowship of Nigeria who paid him a courtesy call at the Government House, argued that there was no way the dropped allocation could go round with the present inflated wage bill across the 16 local government areas in the state.

According to him, "I have begun to wonder why stakeholders refuse to lend their voices to the current situation rather they continue to blame the state government. "The problem is neither the government's doing nor the president, it is a national problem.

"And beneficiaries of these inefficiencies have refused to talk. Even stakeholders that understand the situation have declined comment. The governor for the umpteenth attributed the problem to wrong structure of the local government, saying that local government areas were structured along political exigencies.

His words, "all local government areas are not structured but political exigencies. But as it is now, it is not sustainable". He therefore emphasized that all hands must be on deck to tackle the cankerworm in order to give hope to the hopeless local government workers. Governor Ahmed also dismissed the wide spread rumour that local government areas in the state were not autonomous, stressing that the 16 local government areas in the state were completely autonomous.

He explained that the popular talked about joint account was not between the state government and the local government areas but with the local government areas among themselves. The governor further argued that the local government allocation had nothing to do with the state saying that their allocation was being shared in accordance with local government law. He also alleged that the last protest by NULGE to Government House was being politically motivated by overzealous politicians who were head bent in scoring cheap political goal.

Governor Ahmed who stressed that no amount of blackmail could derail him, urged kwarans to be warried of the bad elements who were head bent in fanning the ember of disunity. On the issue to Kwara Bridge Employment Scheme (KWABES), the governor nor explained that the programme was not sustainable due to the present economic situation.

He disclosed that the state government was looking at another option of earmarking N1 billion for Small Medium Enterprise to be accessed by youths for agriculture. He added that the youths were expected to embark on crop farming, poultry and fish farming among others.

The Chairman, Church Leaders and Ministers Fellowship of Nigeria, Rev Emmanuel Adeosun had earlier in his remark praised the state government for his development projects. Rev Adeosun also made case for local government workers and parastatals appealing to the governor to find a means of settling their backlog salaries.

He told the governor that their situation was so terrible and making it difficult for them to make both ends meet. He also explained that capturing churches and other religious outfit under tax net was not acceptable to adherents, calling for the review of the tax law.