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Former Benue State Governor and PDP leader, Chief Samuel Ortom, has challenged every local government chairman in Nigeria, past and present, to bury political hats and collaborate for the sake of development.
Speaking today at the NAF Conference Centre Abuja during the official launch of the “One Nigeria Project” by the National Association of Former Elected Local Government Chairmen, Ortom insisted that the local government remains the real engine room of any meaningful progress in the country.
“Whether we want to secure our land, bring development, promote agriculture, or do anything else, it has to start from the local government,” he said, adding that divisive politics among former and current council leaders only benefits politicians at the top while the people suffer.
Coming barely weeks after the Supreme Court landmark ruling granting financial autonomy to local governments, Ortom welcomed the judgement as a long-overdue affirmation of the third tier’s independence. He, however, reminded the gathering that the Federal Government has already begun direct funding to councils and charged the 36 state governors to stop any attempt to tamper with those funds.
Several heavyweights lent their voices to the occasion. Senator Abdulraziz Yari, former Zamfara governor and chairman of the One Nigeria Project, called on Nigerians to embrace peace and unity, insisting that “no foreigner will come and solve our problems for us.” Former Attorney-General Michael Aondoakaa praised the initiative as timely, while NALGON Emeritus National Chairman, Barr. Shabba Ibrahim, described the One Nigeria Project as a child of necessity in an era when divisive politics, religious sentiments, and ethnic jingoism are threatening the corporate existence of the country.
With local government autonomy now constitutionally reinforced and voices like Ortom’s pushing for cooperation across party lines, the message from Abuja today was unmistakable: if Nigeria must move forward, the real work begins at the wards and villages, and it will take both yesterday’s and today’s local leaders, working shoulder to shoulder, to make it happen.
