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Former presidential aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adamu Garba has described the local governments as Automated Teller Machines, ATMs, of state governors in Nigeria.
Garba called for the scrapping of the local governments, which he further described as “paper-only, money-sharing third tier of government”.
In a statement he posted on his X page, Garba said it’s practically impossible to implement the Supreme Court’s ruling on local government autonomy.
Read Also: Crisis: PDP Won’t Go Into ‘Gutter’ With Wike – Makinde
He said: “One of the most inefficient, ineffective back pocket of some state governors is the local government councils.
“Local governments takes their legislation from the state assemblies and you know what that means. Autonomy or not, the LGs are still ATMs of some state governors.
“In reality, there is no any country on earth that has third tier of government except Nigeria.
“Since it proved to be non-workable, why not scrap it?”
Garba also suggested that the powers of the local governments should be transfered to traditional rulers
He added: “Instead of struggling to get constitutional authority to our traditional rulers, they should be handed over the local government councils and let them run it according to the local culture and tradition of the people within their domain.”
In other news, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, on Thursday, declared that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not reduce itself to the “gutter level” of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, just as he disclosed that the party’s National Executive Council (NEC) will take a stand on zoning and other issues during its meeting on Monday.
Makinde said this in Lagos during the stakeholders meeting of the zoning committee.
When asked if the issue of micro zoning was discussed, he said, “A decision is coming, and it is an NEC decision. This consultative meeting is not something that is statutory in the constitution of PDP. But democracy is inclusivity, reaching out and ensuring that all stakeholders are carried along, which is what we’ve done today.”
Further asked how soon a decisive decision on zoning is expected, he said, “NEC is on Monday. Today is Thursday. Our NEC is on Monday; you will definitely have a decision.”
