By Samuel Ogenyi, Uyo
With over 90percent of Local Government Chairmen in Akwa Ibom seeking relection for a second term, concerned civil servants in the state have advised the people to expect no grassroots development in the next three years.
The civil servants who craved anonymity have declared the current crop of Council Chairmen in the state as pets in the hands of the State government, due to the way they found their way into offices.
They believed that if the Chairmen had emerged through a unanimous grassroot agreement and expressed through votes, they would have felt accountable to the people and would have worked hard to develop their respective areas
Recall that the Chairman of Ini Local Government Area, Mr Isreal Idaisin had last week advised Akwa Ibom people at the grassroots to elect people who are knowledgeable in administration and public service, who would easily understand the rudiments of the office and be accountable to the people.
Idaisin had observed that those who go into such an office as novice easily fall prey in the hands of some career civil servants who mislead them with the promises of retiring funds for projects not executed..
“You must have a little knowledge of administration before you take up a position of leadership, otherwise you would have a lot of blunders to contain with, because there are so many things that would come your way that you at least need that knowledge to guide you. Otherwise you are going to fall prey in the hands of some career people that you are working with.
“Sometimes you have the allocation of N10-N30 million coming into your office, they say ok, we can help you retire this money without doing anything. Number one you are doing injustice to yourself, your local government area and your people that voted you into power, because they believed in you before they voted you into office.
“So if you dance to the tune of some of the career people in the council, at the end of your tenure you may not gain anything”. He had said
But the aggrieved local government workers in their reactions vehemently blamed the decay at the grassroots on most of the Chairmen whom they claimed have continued to display a very high level of incompetency in their dealings.
Citing instances, one of the civil servants who pleaded anonymity said, ” A Chairman would go to the joint allocation Account meeting with the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftency Affairs, you sign as much as N180,000,000 as what was sent to your council area, at the end of the meeting, you take N5,000,000 sitting allowance and N7,000,000 back to the council.
“When you come back to the council, you take N2,000,000 security vote. You leave the bulk of your council income with the joint account. Now what is the salary bill of your LGA that should have swept all N168,000,000 or even more? What would you use in developing your area? All because of how you came into office”. He said
Another who also begged to be protected accused the Council Chairmen of encouraging the operation of joint account in the State, inspite of the Local Government Autonomy
Justifying the claim, the source said that 28 out of the 31 councils chairmen with Akwa Ibom Government dragged the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to Court to challenge operation of separate account by local Councils.
“Already 28 Local Government Councils Chairmen joined the state government and took NFIU to Court, that they are in support of Joint Account. It’s was only Ikot Abasi, Mkpat Enin and Itu LGCs that did not sign, so the rest joined them.
“While the Chairmen claimed that they were under pressure from the State Government to do so, the state government on their part also claimed that the councils chairmen were not matured enough to handle such volumes of money”. He said
