1,800 Farmers Benefit From ELGI Award

The Excellence in Local Governance Initiative has been described by the Secretary to the State Government, Hon Magnus Ngei Abe as a concrete developmental tool in which the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency has used to build the capacity of local government councils and also motivated them to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people at the grassroots. He described the prizes as beneficial to the people which will also create employment and generate revenue at the grassroots.

 Mr Abe commended the Gokana Local Government, Abua/Odual and Eleme local government councils for emerging best LGA, first and second runners-up respectively for their outstanding performances in the assessment conducted by fifty independent assessors.

The chairman of the occasion, HRM King Alfred Diete-Spiff who was ably represented by Her Majesty Josephine Diete-Spiff described local government as the foundation for effective development of any society, and she called on all council chairmen to have legacies for which they can be remembered. She reiterated that King Alfred Diete-Spiff was remembered all over the world for the legacy as a Governor of over thirty years ago. The chairman of the occasion appealed to both the Ministry of Local Government Affairs and the Sustainable Development Agency to sustain the initiative.

The Commissioner For Local Government Affairs. Hon. Dr. Tammy Danagogo emphasised that the Governor Chibuike Amaechi-led administration was committed to grass roots development and would not condone any local government chairman who is not development-conscious as was manifested in the removal of three local government chairmen. He also commended the 50 independent assessors led by Professor Johnson A. Ekpere, the Aleruchi Cookey-Gam-Ied Assessment Team and the Ministry Of Local Government Affairs team which confirmed the findings of the independent assessors.

In his welcome address, the Executive Director of RSSDA, Mr. Noble Pepple described the strategic intentions of the initiative as an avenue to motivate the top leadership of the local government councils to deliver sustainable services to the citizens and create competitive atmosphere that will raise the overall quality of leadership in the state. Mr. Pepple enumerated some of the gains of ELGI since inception to include the adoption of e-governance which is the development of local government portals for information dissemination and collaboration in the 23 LGAs of the state.

This, according to the executive director, was the first of its kind in Nigeria. Secondly, the improvement in human capital development and infrastructural development. Thirdly, the effective budget implementation and tracking which the capacity of council staff has been built. Fourthly, the effective role played by the legislative arm in their over sight and legislative functions.

Thus, the impact of the initiative cannot be over-emphasised as the local government councils, their executives and staff are now transparent, accountable, people-oriented and participatory.