Poor funding, leadership corruption, bane of  LG administration in Nigeria -Zulum

AHMED MARI, Maiduguri

Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has described poor funding and leadership, as well as corruption as the bane of local government administration in Nigeria.

Governor Babagana Zulum disclosed this on Wednesday when he received participants of Course 44 Group 7 of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) led by its Director General, Professor Ayo Omotayo, who paid him a courtesy call at the Government House,  Maiduguri.

“Borno will provide the team with opportunity to learn more in conjunction with Federal Government which is doing everything possible to bring back the lost glory of Borno State”, Zulum said.

He also identified lack of qualified teachers in primary schools and redundancy of the Local Government Councils staff as other teething problems bedeviling local government management system in this country.

While praising his Alma Mater for visiting Borno as one of the study centres, Governor Zulum suggested that the situation needed to be addressed squarely.

It would be recalled that Professor Zulum is a member of the Institute and also a visiting Professor to the institute before he was elected a governor in 2019.

He also commended this year’s study with a theme: “Local governance in Nigeria: challenges ,options and opportunities”, describing it as timely but  lamented lack of social amenities in the local government areas and advocated good governance  at the grassroots level.

Earlier speaking, the Director-General, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Prof. Ayo Omotayo, said the institution decided to choose Borno State due its strategic and unique location of sharing border with Chad, Niger and Cameroon Republics and to see how Borno State is rapidly recovering from the 13 years of insurgency.

Prof. Ayo pointed out that it was not easy to restore peace to war-affected areas but here in Borno State, Governor Zulum has done so in a very short period of time and called on other Governors to emulate his style of leadership.

The Course 44 participants were in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital since Sunday where they visited some local government areas, as well as the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Dr. Abubakar ibn Umar Garbai El Kanemi.

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