Olugbon of Orile Igbon and Deputy Chairman, Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs, Oba Francis Olusola Alao, has called for the replacement of local government with the traditional institution.
The traditional ruler said that the local government in Nigeria doesn’t exist anymore adding that traditional rulers should be given constitutional roles.
He made this known, on Friday, while hosting the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Adejare Adeboye, at his Palace, Orile Igbon, Oyo state.
His words: “I think the way we are going now, we’ll still go back to that. As far as we are concerned, there is no local government all over Nigeria anymore. Then you can replace them with traditional rulers. They should give traditional institution constitutional role.
“All the 774 local governments across Nigeria are not working at all. Then let the traditional rulers take over the positions. And again, I’m still saying it, let there be autonomy for the local government and judiciary. This will help the nation to grow and bring progress to the nation.
“So, I’m using this opportunity to say let there be constitutional role for traditional rulers so that we all can move together.There are a lot of fantastic traditional rulers who are equipped academically, in fact, more than those whom we put there as local government chairmen.
“So, if they can put them; we have retired judges among ourselves, we have retired military officers, we have accountants. All professions, you will find them in the traditional institution.
“So, what are they doing? Is it because we are traditional rulers we should be redundant? So, let them give us constitutional role to play so that would the nation can be healed. There is a lot of division all over the country. The crime rate is high because 80% of Nigerians are living in abject poverty. There is no middle class Nigerian anymore. It is either you are poor, extremely poor or you are extremely rich. No rich Nigerian.
“Those who are rich, they are extremely rich and they are not even up to 2% of the entire population.The rest are poor. So, if there’s no middle class Nigerians economically, that means we have a very high hyperinflation in the country. So please, I’m praying and I’ll continue to pray for our leaders. Let them put heads together, we need a constitutional role for traditional rulers.”
