Olusegun Obasanjo, a former President, has said the current state of Local Government administration in Nigeria is in the hand of God.
Obasanjo attributed the decay in the local government system to military rule and politicians.
He said the rot in the system started with the then military heads of state, who wanted to have local government councils in their respective areas.
He added that the political class took the decay further with corruption.
A statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, quoted him to have said this on Tuesday, while hosting the new President of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Akeem Olatunji Ambali, at his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Penthouse residence, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The former president noted that the survival of the current state of local government administration in the country “is in the hand of God.”
According to him, the situation in the 774 local governments has been worsened, as they cannot even afford graders to make their roads motorable, among other functions highlighted by the 1976 Local Government Reform.
He said the reform has been degraded by the states’ executives.
The former president urged local government workers in the country to be prayerful for things to get better.
Earlier, Ambali told Obasanjo that the union needs his intervention and contribution on the planned delisting of local government from the 1999 constitution by the National Assembly.
Ambali described the bill as an attempt to kill local government administration in the country.
