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By Kingsley Okoye

The National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) has tasked the Federal Government to work toward improving the capacities of local government staff to address kidnappings and banditry.

The Director-General of the institute, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman said this at the workshop for officials of local government councils in Kaduna State on Friday in Abuja.

Sulaiman said that the advent of banditry and kidnappings in the country was as a result of the neglect of the local government councils.

“We talk of insecurity, banditry, kidnapping because local government as a tier of government has been neglected.

“Everything we do at the national level without going to the grassroots is nullity.

“If we get it right today, empower them at the national level, build their capacity, ensure infrastructure, allow them to play their role in the area of procurement, there will be an end to kidnapping and banditry in the country.

“The panacea to it is to allow local governments to thrive, thrive by funding them and allow them to have access to their funds,” he said.

Sulaiman said that the training was coming at the critical period where policy initiatives, meaningful citizens’ participation in politics and governance were expected to emanate from the grassroots.

“For the past few years, there has been increasing conversation on decentralisation, participatory governance and bottom-up policy formulation and implementation to deepen Nigerian democracy.

“For the country to experience balanced and sustainable development, there is a need for the majority of the Nigerian population who live at the third tier of government to benefit from the dividends of democracy at the grassroots level,” he said.

Also speaking, the President, Absolute Consult, Dr Yomi Charles, said that the training was organised to enhance the capacity of local government officials on legislative matters.

“We are looking at changing the narrative from the local government level to meet up to the national standard.

“The initiative of the officials in the local government can change and meet the current standard of Nigerian economy as per legislative matters,” he said.

A participant, Malam Bello Gimi said that officials at the grassroots were faced with difficulty in internal revenue generation.

“We are finding it very difficult to generate internal revenue. Without funds there is little we can achieve.

“The revenue at the centre is not coming as expected. These are some of our challenges,” he said.

Gimi also called for full financial autonomy for local government councils in the country.

“There are efforts to see that autonomy has been given but somehow, there are some forces that are not willing to see the local government become autonomous.

“But with more pushing, consultation and lobby, one day the local government will be autonomous,” he said. (NAN)

Edited by Ali Baba-Inuwa

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Published By

Philip Daniel Yatai

Editor/Assistant Chief Correspondent,
FCT Correspondent,
NAN Abuja.

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