Destruction of Local Government reason for insecurity-Buhari

Ogunsakin Mustapha
3 Min Read

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday identified the collapse of the Local Government structure in Nigeria as the reason for insecurity, and economic woes the country have experienced in recent times.

The Nigerian president therefore passed a message to the governors: “Secure your states! You campaigned got into office because the people voted for you. You cannot expect another person to do your job for you.

Local governments across the country have remain comatose as state governments cornered their allocation as the third tier of government from the Federation accounts. Investigations shows that workers of Ekiti State Local Government are being owed six months salaries, while other emoluments remained unpaid. Many local governments with fully equipped Public Works Department across the country have been destroyed while health faculties remain comatose.

President Buhari made these remarks in an exclusive interview he granted to a team of journalists from Arise Television, led by its Chairman, Mr Nduka Obaigbena. The team included Dr Reuben Abati, Tundun Abiola, and Segun Olaniyi.

President Buhari lamented the destruction and takeover of local government structures across the country. He referred to a situation where a local government got an allocation of N300 million and a state governor made the chairman to sign for the funds and doled out only N100 million to the local government.

President Buhari continued: “Two South West Governors came to me to say cattle rearers are destroying farms in their states, I asked them what happened to the grassroot security structures from Traditional Rulers, to Local Governments who meet regularly to identify the root of their problems and identify crooks within their environment. Who destroyed this system? Go back and fix it, give your people sense of belonging. I don’t like it when people campaign to become Governors and people trusted them with their votes and after winning, they can’t perform, they’re trying to push responsibilities to others. ……..we have three tiers of Government, Federal, State and Local. We have killed the Local Government totally. We will send N300m as allocation to a Local Government, one Governor will ask the LG Chairman to sign that he collected N300m but he will give him N100m and the Chairman will keep quiet…..is that how we will continue?, he asked.

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