Benue state acting governor, Engr Benson Abounu has called on elected local government council chairmen and other operators of the third tier of government to team up and work together to achieve the purpose of bettering the lives of the ordinary people.
Speaking while declaring open a 3-day induction workshop for elected local government councils in the state at Royal choice Hotel, Makurdi, Engr Abounu told the main actors in the local government system to see themselves not only as as partners and co-workers in the service of the people but also as agents of the change that President Muhammadu Buhari promised the nation.
He said the era of repeating the same mistakes all over again is gone adding that the APC government is set to change the ugly face of the country and give practical meaning to governance.
Engr Abounu advised the chairmen and key actors of the local government system not to take their people for granted but to relate with them honestly, always briefing and keeping them abreast of important developments that concern their areas.
He said as the tier of government closest to the people, the local government is the interface between the people at the grassroots and the Samuel Ortom administration hence the need for the elected councils to succeed in the duty of delivering service to the people as envisaged in the development blueprint of the Samuel Ortom administration.
The acting governor charged the elected chairmen and councilors to shun every form of corruption, warning those who do otherwise to expect the invitation of the EFCC.
Earlier, Special adviser to the Governor on local government and Chieftaincy affairs, Titus Zam explained that the workshop which is organized by the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in conjunction with Bashy Ventures Consult is meant to reposition the local government system as a third tier of government capable of complimenting the developmental agenda of the Ortom administration as captured in the economic blueprint, “our collective vision for a new Benue state”.
He listed some of the challenges facing the local government system as overbloated and unproductive workforce, a very high wage bill, unethical job behaviour, over-dependence on FAAC; lack of internal source of survival and politicization of the local government service and surmised that the workshop will avail them the requisite skills to address those challenges.There were goodwill messages from the Speaker, Benue state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Terkimbi Ikyange who was represented by his deputy, Hon. James Ejembi Okefe, State Attorney General and commissioner for Justice, Barr Mike Gusa, the APC state chairman, Comrade Abba Yaro and retired permanent Secretary, Chief Akange Audu who in their separate messages called on the elected council chairmen and councillors to be good ambassadors of the APC and true representatives of their people by impacting positively on their lives through the projects they initiate and the lives they touch.
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