Maduako Igbokwe I Sunday, July 30, 2023
AWKA, Nigeria – Anambra State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mr Collins Nwabunwane has stated that before the present administration, the state local governments were in total disarray.
According to Nwabunwane,when the present administration came on board local government administration in the state was nothing good to write home about.
The commissioner who spoke to newsmen at the weekend said that workers in various local government service were not going to work because there were no working facilities for them to do their work.
Nwabunwane said that ,most of the staff of the local government were not promoted and the senior ones were retiring with nobody to replace them.
“We found out that majority of staff over the years were not promoted. Senior ones are retiring from service and there were no younger ones to replace them because they were not promoted and trained to take over such responsibilities
“We inherited disjointed local government administration. Today we have started training them for higher positions and giving them the needed training and exposure. We also send them out for training and they are happy” he said.
He also stated that they have renovated local government offices that were dilapidated and cleared all the weeds that have taken over most of local government council areas in the state .
Nwabunwane also said that they are trying to put in place template so that the council can collaborate with the state government.
He also stated that when the present government came into office,there were a lot of challenges in communities as a result of some powerful individuals trying to decide the activities in the communities.
“We stopped the culture of imposition of caretakers committee in the Communities,which was the order. The war lord or the money bags in those communities imposed any person they want even when the members of the communities do not want the person to be President General.
“What they do before now was to call commissioner or a prominent person in government and tell them what they want and before one knows it, an elected person is removed and replaced with a caretaker. Some of the people were elected and when we came in we decided to change the narrative and people are happy with our actions ” he said.
The commissioner said with the painstaking approach to putting things in the right perspective,they have reconciled cries in over 100 Communities. He frowned at the impunity of the rich men deciding what the whole community will do ,even against the popular will.
“This kind of impunity that happened in the last administration cannot be allowed to happen again,if we want peace and progress in the state” he said. On the issue of conducting local government elections,he said that government is taking positive steps to conduct local government elections.
“No government comes in and conducts local government elections immediately. It has to put in place certain things that will enable credible election. We don’t even have an Anambra State Electoral Commission office and we need to build one . We have to look for those who will man the offices. I am assuring you that ,the present government will conduct a credible election very soon,at the right time ” he said.
