Of Poor LGs’ Service Delivery, Need For Change

When, very early this year, Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi removed from Local Government Councils the huge burden of paying the monthly wage bills of primary school teachers, the driving force behind that decision was to ensure better service delivery by councils to the grassroots.
Before the governor’s decision, many had blamed the poor performance of some local government councils on the high salary bill of primary school teachers along with others, which added to other direct deductions often resulted in zero allocation.
For example, the total wage bill of Port Harcourt city Local Government council used to be about N158 million, while its monthly due from the Federation Allocation staggered between N150 million and N200 million, a situation which frequently forced the council to depend heavily on internally generated revenue.
With the removal of the burden which payment of teachers’ salary posed, Port Harcourt City, like all other councils were expected to channel excess funds to veritable development projects meaningful to the people.
Strangely however, very few of the 23 councils can be counted as delivering on their mandate to the people , through the provision of basic amenities like potable drinking water, good roads, electricity supply, promotion of basic educational pursuits and in fact, encouraging self help activities in the various communities in their areas.
In fact, no day passes by without various stakeholders complaining of the high-handedness, greed, corruption and outright insensitivity on the part of local government council chairmen. Some, according to reports have within less than two years acquired a fleet of choice automobiles and landed properties in places far outside their local councils, the state capital and indeed the country’s shores.
Without doubt, non-performance of some councils has for sometime now been a source of painful commentaries by hopeless rural dwellers and concerned followers of the local government system who expected total change and developmental rebirth.
Unfortunately, in some local government areas, what can be found as tangible symbols of government presence are the prototype primary schools, access roads and model primary healthcare facilities now under construction, all handiwork of the state government.
It was partly in reaction to these that Governor Amaechi last week set up assessment committee to critically evaluate the performances of all councils in the state with a view to bringing to book those who on account of their corruption, insensitivity and greed, have abandoned the very requirements of their electoral mandate to their peoples.
We consider that redemption measure most timely because it is gradually becoming very frustrating for various stakeholders to call to order, some of their council chairmen who still believe that their offices are to amass enough ill-gotten wealth for the rainy day. That should not be the case.
Happily, the state Commissioner for Local Governments, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Dr Tammy Danagogo has instructed all councils to hold regular stakeholders’ fora where, they must brief their people on how public money was being spent.
It is hoped that during such inter-face, stakeholders would be able to voice their views on the alleged recklessness of some elected council officials.
The Tide considers these moves as proactive but require constant monitoring and supervision, if they are to make any meaningful changes on the fluctuating fortunes of the rural people.
For now, the performance of some local government councils fall below civilized standards and as such require stern probe by both the executive and legislative chambers of the state government.
It is in this light, that The Tide calls on the State House of Assembly to deal with as a sense of urgency and dispatch complaints burdening on corruption among council chairmen because the time should be far gone, when a few would feed fat on the commonwealth of all.