Nmerukini Carpets Local Govt Councils

The chairman, Rivers State Local Government Service Commission, Chief Azubuike Nmerukini, says non-performance by most of the councils is responsible for the widespread agitations for the scrapping of the system in the country.

Nmerukini told newsmen in Port Harcourt recently that the local government administration had lost focus in the country.

Nmerukini said that councils’ authorities had failed to realise that local government administration was the closest to the people, and that they owed their responsibilities to them.

He said the council administrations across the country should wake up to the fact that their responsibilities were far beyond the payment of staff salaries, warning that their inadequacies were being monitored daily by the people.

Nmerukini said he had already commenced a tour of the 23 council areas in the state to assess their performances.

He reiterated the commission’s determination to make councils in the state to justify the essence of third-tier system of government by delivering infrastructure and facilitating the socio-economic development of the rural areas.

“The local government council, as the third-tier government is intended to bring development closer to the people in the manner allowed by the constitution”, he said.

Nmerukini, a former Chairman of Port Harcourt City Council, said that his experience in council administration showed that there were certain services that only councils must provide for the people.

He added that there were specific roles meant for the councils, stressing that any failure on their part to play the role of providing services to the grassroots meant that local government administration had failed.

Nmerukini directed all the councils to forward lists of all staff who were due for promotion to the Commission for necessary action.

He advised staff to ensure that they were always punctual on duty to justify the salaries they were paid, adding that punctuality was part of the conditions for promotion.