‘Why Rivers LGAs Boil’

Inability to shed pre-election loyalties, greed, vaunting ambition, mutual distrust and fear of the future have been identified as reasons for the near frequent conflicts between Chairmen and Deputies of Local Government Councils in Rivers State.

Chairperson of the All LG Vice Chairmen Forum in the state and Deputy Mayor of Port Harcourt, Mrs. Nancy Stevens said most local government chairmen and their deputies owe their loyalties to rival political tin-gods rather than to the ordinary people they were elected to serve.

In an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt, yesterday, Mrs. Stevens averred that most council conflicts were caused by the lack of trust between chairmen and their deputies, which often spill over to other council officials.

Describing such animosity as destructive and often actuated either by greed or survival instinct on the part of the chairmen or vaulting ambition on the part of some vice chairmen, Mrs. Stevens regretted that vice chairmen were often considered as potential opponents by the chairmen, simply because they are likely beneficiaries of the fall of their principals.

According to her, unless chairmen and their deputies consider their positions as  platforms for service to the electorate and not a political-ring for power-play, the local government areas would continue to suffer under-development.

Mrs. Stevens singled-out the Port Harcourt City, Etche, Oyigbo and Ogu-Bolo Local Government Councils where, the two most senior political leaders enjoy a very healthy working relationship, grounded in team spirit.

The chairperson of Vice Chairmen Forum’s advised her colleagues not to give their principals any reason to victimise them, by being humble, understanding, supportive, dedicated and indeed honest in their daily dealings with their chairmen.

She advised vice chairmen to shun, at all times, the tendency to see their positions as platforms to  launch into higher prominence to unseat their principals but an opportunity to partner on service to the people.

The Deputy Mayor however, described some council chairmen as unnecessarily greedy and inhuman in dealing with their vice chairmen, by deliberately rendering them redundant.

“Even when some chairmen assign specific portfolios to their deputies, they still set up multiple desks, using Special Assistants or Special Advisers (SAs) to perform the same duties already listed for their deputies”, Mrs. Stevens revealed.

She enjoined chairmen and their deputies to work in harmony in the interest of the development of the rural areas.

Soye Wilson Jamabo