Unviable States, LGA’s, Should Be Scrapped Or Merged – Wogu, Aba Mayor

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

With many Nigerians still basking in the euphoria heralded by the far reaching pronouncements by the Supreme Court on the independence of the third tier of Government, the Mayor of the Metropolitan Aba South Council of Abia State, Chief Uche Wogu, has insisted that Local Councils should not just be merely autonomous, but be demonstrably self-reliant and self-sustaining.

The Supreme Court had, on June 20, 2024, ruled to affirm the financial autonomy of Local Governments in the Country and further ordered that they be credited with their monthly accruals from the Federation Account directly.

But in an interview with The Source on Friday, August 23, Wogu who is also the Aba Zonal Coordinator of the Abia state Harmonized Taskforce, said States and Local Governments which  are not viable should be scrapped and merged to ensure sustainability.

“I have been a strong advocate for the merging of unviable states and Local Governments to make for self reliance and sustenance.

“States should not be solely dependent on monthly hand outs from the centre. The practice, has engendered laziness in the system.

“Instead of being innovative and creative, Local Councils and States now sit back and wait for Federal allocations.

“I recall that in the second republic, the then Governor of old Imo State, late Chief Sam Mbakwe on some occasions came to borrow money from the Aba province.

“It is good that the Supreme Court has now clearly defined the autonomous status of Local Governments. But we have to go further to affirm the situation by putting in place the needed structural  foundations that will truly promote the financial autonomy to a self reliant and sustaining level”, Chief Wogu stated.

According to him, Local Government should not be confined to the anachronistic idea of merely chasing people about to collect taxes and rents, and there after grade some roads,and be satisfied .

” Local Governments should be innovative, and intentional in creating an enabling environment for business activities to thrive, and for sustainable revenue generation..

” Our intention in Aba South is to create the right atmosphere for economic growth, encourage the existing industrial clusters, and  SMEs ,as well as exportations.

There are many things we can produce and export from Aba and environs ,to bolster the revenue profile .Not chasing people around in the name of collecting taxes and rents.

That is not my idea of local Government administration. The idea is that Local councils should not just be autonomous, but manifestly impactful to the the lives of the people.” Mayor Wogu. noted

Further speaking, he informed that the target is for the Aba South Council to rake in about N500 million quarterly from business activities .

” Our intention is to run the system without  recourse and or over dependence on the so-called Federal allocations .

Here, we have the potentials to be one of the most viable local councils in the country. Aba South is at the heart of Aba famed business status.

There is no reason for it to be waiting for stipends from the Federation account, when there are countless opportunities to be self reliant and sustaining” he said

Chief Wogu asserted that part of the problems besetting the system is the idea of perceiving public resources as instruments for political settlement and patronage .

“We have made  it clear that ,there will be no room for the sharing of money to people. My boss ,Governor Alex Otti, is the promoter of that philosophy.

Part of the serious challenges, the system is facing is how to re orientate  the people. In the past ,people just stay in their houses and wait for bank alerts from the Government, without doing any jobs

The Governor, from the state level and we at the  other end are saying no…It can not be business as usual .You can’t be using the commonwealth to service a few privileged people.

So we have made it clear that ,the people’s money will be use to provide infrastructural facilities and other variables that will be beneficial to the majority of the people.

The ideal situation is for an enabling environment to be created, with people able to earn a decent living. Although, some  people are resisting the change in philosophy, but we are not deterred .

Even the workforce ,the emphasis is how to create a conducive atmosphere for them to acquire useful skills that will serve them even in retirement.” Wogu stated.