Obasanjo launches review of local government

President Olusegun Obasanjo has set up a "special technical committee" to review Nigeria's notoriously corrupt and inefficient local government councils and recommend whether or not they should continue to exist as a tier of government. Obasanjo said in a televised address to the nation on Wednesday night that he had ordered the review because these councils cost a lot to run, but had failed to serve as agents of development. Their abolition would concentrate more power in the hands of Nigeria's 36 state governments, each of which has an elected governor and legislature. The president recalled that Nigeria's current local government structure was introduced in 1976 to speed up the development of cities, towns and rural areas. "However, what we have witnessed is the abysmal failure of the local government system," Obasanjo said. "The resources available which otherwise should be used for development programmes at the grassroots are being used to service bloated elected officials and unproductive bureaucracies," The number of local government councils has more than doubled from 310 in 1976 to 774 and more than 500 new ones are in the process of being created. Obasanjo said he was worried that the proposed new councils would spread existing resources even more thinly and increase adminstrative costs without delivering services more efficiently. The President who was re-elected for a second four-year term in April, has promised to draw from lessons learnt in his first term to work towards building "a great Nigeria".