Local Govt reforms key to tackling insecurity, infrastructure challenges – Reps

Tom Okpe, Abuja

Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Ahmed Wase has revealed that security and infrastructure challenges facing the country can only be solved through the installation of functional and viral working local government systems.

Wase made this revelation in Abuja on Thursday while declaring to open a leadership training programme for some elected local government Chairmen and Councillors from Delta state.

He assured that the 9th National Assembly would do its best to amend the Constitution to provide a workable local government system that will be the true third tier of government.

“I come from one of the remotest parts of this country. I know how local government administration was, then in the past, not the one we are having today and I believe collectively all of us can make it work again. We can change the narration, we can make it better.

“Not the third tier that when you do Federation Account Allocation some few persons will go and sit somewhere in small rooms, do all the cuttings and send out the peanuts. Meanwhile, the bulk of the problems, being infrastructure, insecurity is there at the grassroots, Wase said.

The Deputy Speaker, commended the sponsor of the Programme, Minority Leader of the House, Ndudi Elumelu for organizing the capacity building for local government leaders in his Constituency, urging the participants to use the knowledge for the efficient service delivery to their people.

In his remarks, Elumelu said the training was his modest way to ensure capital capacity building that would empower the Chairmen and Councilors so that they can do better in their various grassroots where they represent.

“The people that voted you have done so by way of investment. The return on investment is the dividends of democracy that they will be provided to the people that voted for them, and that is their return and they cannot make that return possible if they are not well informed.

“My dream is to ensure that at the end of this exercise they’ll be well-groomed, well informed and they will be empathic and also see themselves as people representatives that will go back and showcase all that they have learnt here and put them into good use. This is the reason why I focused on this capacity building,” Elumelu noted.

Guest Speaker at the event, Epiphany Azeinge said at the third tier of government, the trainees were critical stakeholders in Nigeria’s federal system of government and they must show responsibility in ramifications of their duties and obligations.

“By identifying priorities and pursuing them to logical conclusions, learn to be frugal and prudent in management of public funds, always realize that public fund is a public Trust.

“You do that by showing and demonstrating leadership to your staff and your people by being accountable in all you do, by being selfless and altruistic by observing due process and the rule of law by avoiding the culture of impunity,” he said.