The need to free local government councils from the strangle hold of state governors became an issue on Monday at the ongoing National Conference holding in Abuja.
Delegates who commented on the inaugural address of President Goodluck Jonathan lamented the near moribund status of local councils in the country.
For the delegates, immediate steps should be taken to restore the autonomy of local councils to enable them serve the purpose for which they were created.
The delegates also said that machinery should be put in motion to create jobs to cater for the teeming army of unemployed youths.
As has been the case, the issue of insecurity was not left out as delegates asked the Federal Government to address the problem.
Barrister Nasiru Ibrahim Junji, who came to the conference on the platform of former local government chairmen, in his comment said that the time has come for the country to allow local governments to function.
Junji noted that state governments must be told in clear terms to free local government councils in their states.
Junji, who was a former local government chairman in Kebbi State, traced security challenges in the country to declining influence of local government councils.
For him, if local councils were up and doing, working in collaboration with traditional institutions, the country would have been able to arrest the spreading security challenges.
A Nigeria Labour Congress delegate, Ibrahim Khaleel, on his part noted that the best way to address the myriad of problems facing the country is to empower and allow local councils to work.
Khaleel said that a situation where local councils are treated with disdain is not healthy for the country.
He urged delegates to take the issue of local government council elections with the seriousness they deserved.
Khaleel also linked the problem of insurgency to ineffective local councils in the country.
He insisted that the country could only work when most Nigerians are carried along at the federal, state and local councils.
General Zamani Lekwot, who came to the conference on the platform of Retired Army, Navy and Air Force Officers Association of Nigeria, said that complete independence should be granted local government councils to free them from the tutelage of state governors.
Lekwot noted that granting local councils autonomy would make them work better.
Lekwot, who urged delegates to bury their prejudices and idiosyncrasies, said the conference has a duty to revisit the issue of state and local government creation to bring government nearer to the people.
General A. B. Mamman, the Federal Capital Territory delegate, in his comment noted that the country’s problems were too serious to be considered within three months.
Mamman however added: “Since we are here, we should make the best use of the opportunity.”
Mamman noted that the rumour flying around is that the National Assembly planned to sabotage the work of the conference.
Another rumour, he said, is that there is a hidden agenda for tenure elongation by President Goodluck Jonathan.
He urged the leadership of the conference to resist the temptation of asking for additional time for the conference in order not to confirm the fear of tenure elongation.
Ambassador Hassan Adamu (Wakili Adamawa) charged the conference to pay attention to job creation, poverty alleviation, peace and security and justice for all.
Adamu reminded delegates that Nigerians were waiting for the outcome of the conference and “we should not disappoint them.”
Prof. Ihechukwu Chidozie Madubuike, a South East delegate, noted that every generation should discover its mission to either fulfil it or betray it.
President Jonathan, Madubuike said, has given delegates a mission to fulfil.
Madubuike said that the conference should work towards reconstructing the country by restructuring it in line of justice, equity, and fair play.
Representative of Nigerian Society of Engineers, Senator Adefemi Kila, said that there was no doubt that the country is sick.
Kila said: “It is not sickness of malaria but Nigeria is sick, seriously sick.
“It is the sickness of poverty.
“Our leaders are equally sick of the mind.
“If we are not sick of the mind, we should allow people to serve God the way and manner they want.”
Kila also noted that time has come for the country to begin to produce what it needed.
For him: “If some people want to leave this country, I, Adefemi Kila, I’m not going any where.”
Mohammed Kumalia, a North East delegate, said that for the country to work, Nigerians must elect to do away with parochial and some times irredentist behaviour.
Kumaila said that the conference is an opportunity for people who would ordinarily go for election to contribute their quota to the development of the country.
He lamented pervasiveness of corruption in the country, saying people who stole public funds unashamedly display such stolen wealth for the people to see.
Kumalia said that governors who stole public funds use such funds to buy brand new jets.
Senator Anthony Adefuye described Nigerians as “very, very corrupt”.
Adefuye noted that if the conference was able to tackle the problem of corruption, it would have achieved something.
The Deputy Chairman of the Conference, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, jokingly said that “all those who classify all Nigerians as corrupt will be denied food for three days”.
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