National Daily

Re-positioning Akwa Ibom Councils for development

With the recent election of council's executives into the 31 Local Government Areas in Akwa Ibom State, the stage is now set for business in the third tier of governance, reports EFFIONG USORO, our Uyo Correspondent.

THE expectations of the people of Akwa Ibom State from the local government administration have been perceived to be high given the improved revenue and financial autonomy granted the councils. Also, the renewed interest expectations of the people on the councils to deliver services to the people has been further boosted by the articulated achievements of the state Governor Godswill Akpabio, in his first year in office.

Average citizens of the state believe the performance of Governor Akpabio has posed a challenge to the council executives who must strive to utilize the resources at their disposal to transform their areas during their tenure.

Indeed, Chief Akpabio is believed to have through his dynamic leadership and achievements set the pace for the council chairmen and councilors to emulate. Already, the state government has constructed roads to link virtually all the local government areas.
Government has also procured graders for each of the councils to enable them to grade the roads on regular basis and opening of up farm roads in the precincts. Akpabio has also promised to construct 20 kilometers of road in each of the 31 local government areas. Besides, the state government has constructed urban roads in some of the council headquarters like Eket, Ikot Ekpene, Uyo, Ikot Abasi and Oron. Some of these roads were the responsibility of the councils to maintain. Apparently, the council chairmen are expected to take advantage of these inter-city and intra-city roads provided by the state government to construct more roads as well as maintain the existing ones in their respective local government areas. In the area of provision of infrastructure, the present state administration has through the Inter-Ministerial Direct Labour Committee executed various rural electrification and water projects in the 329 wards of the state.

Also, many public schools buildings and health centres in all the wards have been rehabilitated under the scheme.
At a recent meeting with bank managers in Uyo, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Chief Patrick Udomfang, said the state government was determined to re-position the local government councils to make them centres of development.

Udomfang who spoke against the backdrop of current drive by the governor to transform the entire state, solicited the co-operation and support of banks in the realization of government's development programmes.
The commissioner urged banks to see themselves as viable partners for the development of rural communities in the state and advised them to liaise effectively with local government councils to identify areas they can invest in order to boost the revenue base of such councils.

The commissioner had, at various meetings with council officials, stressed the need for council chairmen to brace up to the challenges of taking development to the grassroots through the provision of basic infrastructural facilities like road, electricity, water as well as improved healthcare delivery system.

Recently, the governor had told journalists in Uyo that it would no longer be business as usual in the administration of local government councils in the state indicating his determination to make the system perform its statutory functions as the third tier of government.

The governor, who was a one-time Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state, assured that he would set up machinery to closely monitor the performance of the councils in the state.
Akpabio had also declared that he would work with the State House of Assembly to remove any council chairman found wanting in the discharge of his official duties.

The declarations made by the state governor and the commissioner were conceived to have shown the seriousness the present administration attaches to the local government council as a vital partner in its rural development drive.
Over the years, local government councils have been seen as centres of corruption because of the massive and reckless embezzlement of council's funds by officials. Chairmen of councils were reported to have adopted strategies of sharing councils' allocations in hotels or at their private residence and would be absent from their offices for weeks.
Analysts blamed the underdevelopment of local government areas in Akwa Ibom State on the mismanagement of the councils' resources by the chairmen and their collaborators who see the councils as veritable ground to enrich themselves. It has been considered heartwarming, therefore, that the present administration in the state would seriously beam its searchlight on the activities of local government councils of the state.

Invariably, the commissioner had at the meeting with bank managers in Uyo warned against granting loans and overdrafts to councils in the state without his approval.

But beyond this, it has been recommended that the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs and the State House of Assembly should appraise the performance of the councils regularly to ensure that councils' fund are judiciously used.
It is hoped that the new council executives in the state would take a cue from the achievements of the governor in the past one year in office and the wind of positive change blowing across the state to impact positively on the lives of the people in their respective areas through the execution of people oriented projects in their first year in office.

Akwa Ibom is widely believed to be on the verge of re-writing the history of council administration in the state under the leadership of Governor Akpabio.