By Biodun Busari

Nigerian-born Canadian councilor, Mrs Khadijah Haliru, has advised Nigerians to build the country from the grassroots by electing credible leaders in local government areas.

Haliru, who is a Councillor at the Town of Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada made this known to Vanguard, on Wednesday, in an opinion message to Nigerians ahead of the 2023 general elections.

According to the Canadian politician, Nigeria is too complex to effect real change from the presidential election only, while little or no efforts are made to create good local government councils.  

She argued Nigeria will not have the challenges of having reliable and credible governors and the president if the local government areas have filled with visionary politicians managing people’s resources at grassroots levels.

“Nigeria, please pay attention to who you elect. For those who want change, step up to build from the ground up. All the protesters, community builders, and social change organisers,” Haliru said.

“We need the government to highlight local government elections in the next year to allow for grassroots to build up. To allow young people to change their communities. Nigeria can only be built from the ground up and not from the top down.

“The only thing you get from a top-down government is hand-downs. The people who receive without a pull from the grassroots can only feed themselves and their families and never get the real ability to influence or make change because the very machinery of change is not at the state level.”

She noted that with 774 local government areas in Nigeria, having right-thinking leaders filling up the posts as chairmen will eventually fast-track the growth and development of Nigeria at the state and federal levels.

“There are 774 local government areas in the Nigerian government structure. Can you imagine 774 people heading local areas to development? Those 774 heads of local governments together control over 200 million people, not the president or governors.

“Don’t you prefer that each of them competes to make towns, cities and capitals better managed and run than those who control the nation’s income? The governor and the president’s role should be in making sure there is a consistent flow of income to local authorities so people can feel their governments are doing something,” she stated.

Haliru said local government’s councillors are important in almost the entire operations of Canada, and Nigeria can emulate that structure to achieve better results.

“In our constitution in Canada, it’s the local government level that is tasked with all the things that matter most to the electorate. If you are concerned about who will be making recommendations to the State, it is the local government chairman.

“It is only if you elect a good governor that they will respect what the local governments need and help provide monies received from the federal government,” Haliru  

“Nigerian local governments are agents of change because they are responsible for delivering important services to the citizens at the grassroots level. They provide essential services such as education, healthcare, sanitation, roads, and others.

“Local governments are in a unique position to respond to the needs of their communities and use their resources to facilitate meaningful change,” she added.