By PETER MOSES

A former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has attributed the rot in Nigeria’s local government system to the military rule and politicians.

Obasanjo said the rot started with the military heads who wanted to have local government councils in their respective areas, adding that the political class took the rot further with corruption.

A statement by the former president’s media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, quoted him to have said this on Tuesday while playing host to the new President of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Akeem Olatunji Ambali, at his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Penthouse residence, Abeokuta.

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 could not 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 the local government workers in the country to be prayerful for things to get better.

Earlier, the new NULGE national president told Obasanjo that the union needed 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.

(Daily Trust)