Governors in the country have been accused of destroying the local government system by withholding funds meant for development at the grassroots level.
Gen. Ishola Williams (rtd) who made the remark at this year’s Democracy Day celebrations , which also marked 25 years of the return to civil rule, said that allowing state governors to control the statutory Local government Funds is the bane of development.
Gen Williams (rtd) who is the Pan- Africanstrategic group-Panafstrag Chair, said he joined the clamour for direct disbursement of funds to the Third tier of government to facilitate development.
According to him, each state in the country should be allowed to conduct both local government election and governorship election and leave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct both the National Assembly election and Presidential election.
“We should not expect the United States to come down here to teach us how to conduct our elections. Let us do it in our own way.
Our Elections are too expensive because we spend too much money because everybody involved in the election wants to benefit from it one way of the other’’, he added. .
Williams argued that there is no Presidential system anywhere in the world where local elections are conducted by the Federal government .
Gen Williams disagreed with the argument that state governors would misuse the powers of state police adding that the Federal government is also doing same.
Speaking on the nation’s economy, he said the provision of free Education and Health services all over the country is the answer to mass poverty adding that only the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo had the vision on how to tackle the country’s problems.