Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, yesterday, stated that local government administration was getting worse in Nigeria, adding that the survival rests on divine intervention.

He lamented that most of the councils could not even afford a grader for roads and perform other functions highlighted by the 1976 Local Government Reform.

In a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, the Owu chief urged the council workers to be prayerful for things to get better.

The ex-Nigerian leader, who received the new National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) president, Comrade Akeem Olatunji Ambali at his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Penthouse home, regretted that the reform had been allegedly abused by state governors.

He said: “I am of the view that the situation needs prayers. A situation whereby a local government cannot even afford a grader to make local roads motorable, a situation where they can not build hospital or provide for the educational needs of their people is not what we want the local government to be when we were creating the 1976 Reform

“Well, the rot actually started with the military, which wanted to have such local councils in their respective areas. This increased the number to 774 from about 300.

“But, the politicians further made it worse with corruption. These were not what we envisioned when we created local government reform in 1976. Local governments were to provide overall quality of life for the people who reside in their communities. But is that what we have now?”

Earlier, Ambali had intimated Obasanjo on recent happenings, disclosing that the union needed his contribution on the planned delisting of local government from the 1999 Constitution (as amended) by the National Assembly.

He described the bill as an attempt to kill local government administration in the country.

According to him, union leaders have been mandated to engage lawmakers in their constituencies on the need for them to stand with the people.

His words: “Delisting the local government from the constitution is grievous. Even with it still functional, they capitalise on the lacuna in Section 7 (6 A&B), which permits the Houses of Assembly to legislate and appropriate funds for local governments, to (allegedly) mismanage local government funds.

“If they can perpetuate this (alleged) illegality despite the constitutional provisions, it will be worse when local government is delisted. This is because money meant for development at the grassroots will be credited to the state government and governors. Then, nobody will be responsible for the growth and development of the local government.”

He continued: “We decided to come and inform you about this inhumane step towards a system, which you genuinely created in 1976. It will rubbish the good intentions that you had and completely mess up the councils.”

seanfer:
OBJ is always showing us how shameless an adult he is. The 1999 election that brought him to power was the same that brought all the 774 LGA Chairmen conducted by INEC. But once this old man gets into power he made sure that INEC never organize election for LGS again and this made the state Governors to turn LGAs to their second cashing point. He refused to pay all the LGAs in Lagos for years even when the Supreme Court judgement that order him to pay the allocation.
OBJ is the foundation of our problems since 1999. He introduced money bag legislature, used federal government agencies to witch-hunt his political enemies.
So the old man should keep shut.

Amotolongbo:
. He refused to pay all the LGAs in Lagos for years even when the Supreme Court judgement that order him to pay the allocation.
OBJ is the foundation of our problems since 1999. He introduced money bag legislature, used federal government agencies to witch-hunt his political enemies.
So the old man should keep shut. You are so wrong on the bolded part.

State Independent Electoral Commission is under the state and not the responsibility of the Federal Government

seanfer:


At the bolded as at 1999. NEC now changed to INEC conducted the elections for 774 LGAs in the country.. It was OBJ that came with the Idea of state independent electoral commission just because he want to have his loyalist in charge of the LGAs for his second term ambition..

seanfer:


At the bolded as at 1999. NEC now changed to INEC conducted the elections for 774 LGAs in the country.. It was OBJ that came with the Idea of state independent electoral commission just because he want to have his loyalist in charge of the LGAs for his second term ambition..

In December 1995, the military government of General Sani Abacha, which earlier dissolved NEC in 1993, established the National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (NECON), which also conducted another set of elections; Local Government councils to National Assembly. These elected institutions were however not inaugurated before the sudden death of General Abacha, on June 1998 aborted the process. In 1998 General Abdulsalam Abubakar’s Administration dissolved NECON and established the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

https://www.inecnigeria.org/home/inec-history/

Sammy07:
Shut up man.
You are also part of the problems of this county.
If only you had set a good record from scratch and you have execute all the military leaders when you assumed office (like what the guy in ghana did) we wouldn't have Buhari by now.

Kidnapping a sitting governor
Killing opposition party aspirants (In remembrance of that World bank consultant from Ekiti state , forgotten his name)

Amotolongbo: