Alhaji Dayyabu Garga, Chairmanship Aspirant, Kanam Local Government in Plateau, says if elected, his administration will use Internally Generated Revenue(IGR) to execute projects and other needs of the area .
Garaga, who is currently the Plateau State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban, made this disclosure on Tuesday in Jos in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to him, as the chief executive officer of the local government, the bulk stops at his table to take decision to determine how to generate and use the resources.
He stated that many local governments relied 100 per cent on federation account because of docility and lack of ingenuity.
“Many local government chairmen will go and sleep and wait for monthly allocation from federation account.
“What are they doing to improve their IGR? “We have vast farmlands that can be cultivated to generate revenue and also serve as employment opportunity.
“We have a lot of mineral resources. Why can’t we explore them so that whatever we get we should be able to develop our local government so that whatever comes from federation account is a supplement.
“But when you depend solely on federation account that can hardly pay salaries, you will have nothing for development purposes”.
Garga further said that if elected, his administration would engage intellectuals, traditional rulers and other stakeholders and would come up with plans to effectively harness farmlands and minerals resources within the local government area.
He added that he would come up with plans A B C and D, which would be executed in phases to boost and sustain revenue generation.
He pointed out that these plans would be implemented in collaboration with the entire people of Kanam according to priorities.
“We will take our youths off the streets by empowering them and making them self-reliant.
“We will empower youths and women with skills, because whatever is your level of education, it is skills that will help you sustain yourself.
“It is better for one to have something doing than to wait for employments from the government that is highly competitive and sometimes unavailable.
“We will empower them in farming, skills acquisition also support them in small scale enterprises.
“By the time you support them, they will also support the system by paying taxes,” he added. (NAN)
