Some Lagos LG Chairmen Are Failures —Akiolu

Oba of Lagos State, South West Nigeria has lashed out at some local government chairmen in the state over non-performance, saying that some of them have performed woefully since they assumed office.

Akiolu spoke at the ministerial press conference of the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs on Thursday, saying that he was pissed off by the extremely poor performance of some local government chairmen in the state.

“Some local government chairmen are incurably bad,” he stated, saying that many of them had run to him for help when they got into trouble.

“I know some of them who ran into hot water and they ran to me and I told them that I don’t condone criminality,” he stated.

Akiolu called on all traditional rulers in the next dispensation to invite their chairmen and demand to know the allocation they got from Abuja and the project they wanted to spend the money on so that the people could get the dividends of democracy.

He said that he would start from his domain, Lagos Island by calling the chairman in the area to inquire what he wanted to do with the allocation he got from Abuja, adding that “all obas should know what to do.”

The Commissioner for Local Government, Prince Rotimi Agunsoye had earlier defended some of the non-performing council chairmen, saying that they had performed well and that their shortcomings were due to the poor federal allocations to the councils.

He stated that councils’ performance should not be measured by the bad roads in the area but with other infrastructure which they had brought to the area.

The commissioner appealed to the Federal Government to review the revenue sharing formula by increasing the allocations to local governments so that developmental projects could be carried out at the grassroots.

On marriage, Agunsoye said the ministry was in the process of modernizing the marriage registries as it was being done all over the world, adding that the registries had been completed and awaiting commissioning.

“By this development, there will be a shift from the issuance of marriage certificates manually to the automated type, which is more durable, potable and secure. Marriage certificates would have more security enhancement.

“Embassies, government agencies as well as other institutions would be able to obtain credible information in that area. From there, we hope to move to births and deaths.

“We cannot continue with a system in which people and institutions locally and abroad cannot obtain credible data from government. It is the first of its kind in the country and would serve as a model for other states to emulate,” he said.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga