Frontline contestant for the chairmanship position in Sapele Local Government Council, Delta state, Honourable Anthony Ebireri, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan and Senator David Mark to focus more on creation of local governments in the country.

Ebireri is contesting for the position on the platform of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), believed to be popular in the area of the state.

“I will prefer the creation of more local governments because the more local government you create gives more opportunity to a large number of Nigerians to participate in the governance of the community.

“By the time you are able to develop the grassroots, you are developing the nation, so I think we need more local governments than states because more states will be beneficial to few elites that comprises of small numbers of the entire population compared to a local government that is meant for every young, old, rich and poor”.

Ebireri further noted that if Nigeria is seriously in the need for proper development, the local governments in each state as currently constituted is not enough to really accomplish that. He stressed that if governance can be brought closer to the people, the country’s development will jump.

The aspirant also believes that the current move by President Goodluck Jonathan to put in place structures to make local government autonomous in terms of getting their allocation directly from the federal government is laudable.

“Thank God for the president we have today, he is somebody that came out from a local community and went through the local politics to become president of this country and he has been able to understand that we must have autonomy when it comes to grassroots development so that there won’t be continuation of imposition and development will be hastened in our respective local government area”.