Borno Council Boss Flays Over-dependence On Statutory Allocation
The Caretaker Chairman of Hawul Local Government Area of Borno State, Dr. Andrew Usman Malgwi, Sunday flayed the over-dependence and total reliance on Federal Government statutory allocation by the different tiers of government in the country.
Describing the situation as the cause of the country's under-development, Malgwi said the lack of formidable policies and initiations towards revitalisation of the agricultural sector among the rural populace has also made Nigerians to be lazy and dependent on white collar jobs.
Malgwi stated this in Marama town, Hawul Local Government Area of Borno State during a civic reception organised for him as a mark of honour by the Malgwi people to coincide with his 100 days in office. He noted that Hawul Local Government, which is predominantly agrarianwith vast fertile land, will tap into the opportunity created by the Administration of Borno State governor Kashim Shettima priority for agriculture as a way of encouraging the people to go back to farming. 'We cannot but invest hugely in agriculture in order to ensure self-reliance for our people and increase the income generation of the council, and stop this over-dependence on stipends from Abuja,” he said.
According to Malgwi, the council has already reintroduced Irish Potato farming as it was practiced in the past and has planted both oil and date palm trees on a large hectares of land in Kukurupu and Sakwa in order to attract peasant farmers to go beyond subsistence farming.
He also promised that fertilizers would soon be made available to farmers at affordable price even as he insisted that infrastructural development of the council was ongoing in line with one of the cardinal programmes of the Shettima Administration.
“We have gone a long way in renovating and rebuilding of new primary schools especially the newly constructed block of classrooms in Pakilama Community among others, refurbishing and drilling of new boreholes in several locations of the Local Government Area,” he added.
He therefore expressed gratitude to the Commissioner for Religious Affairs, Alhaji Usman Durkwa, the member of House of Assembly representing Hawul, Hon. Ayuba Wakawa, ward executives of APC, party supporters, traditional and religious leaders, security agencies, family of Malgwi clan, community leaders among others for their support and contribution to his administration. He noted with gladness that without their efforts, all the achievements recorded by him within the last 100 days would not have been possible.