Mr. Tony Collins Nwabunwanne, Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Town Union Matters in Anambra, says the government of Gov. Chukwuma Soludo is revamping the Local Government system for an all inclusive development.
Nwabunwanne said this at a forum organised by the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Awka.
He said the government, through his ministry, had normalised the town union leadership of most communities by holding elections to take over from the various caretaker committees existing before the administration came on board.
The Commissioner said the Local Government (LG) tier of government before the current administration was marred with absenteeism, absence of basic office tools and overgrown bushes with the Secretariats.
He said most Local Government workers could not operate computers which informed the Soludo administration to initiate the ongoing Information Communication Technology training for local government staff.
According to him, the local government system was moribond for more than 12 years and there are no good offices for the workers, no basic tools to work with, records and files almost do not exist.
“Workers do not know the Local Government Commissioner because there were no oversight visits.
“So, we started to revive the LG system by ordering the clearing of all Secretariat premises, we also embarked ICT training of staff and equipping of the Offices.
“So far, we have trained staff in 12 LGAs of the 21 we have, our target is 5,000 staff, we are also training them in the management of administrative matters, communication, filing of documents and storage of information,” he said.
Nwabunwanne said about 75 per cent of communities in the state did not have duly elected Town Union leadership but instead had caretaker committees constituted for them.
He said the development was responsible for the crisis in those communities because they were not allowed to choose their leaders themselves.
The Commissioner, who blamed the trend on influential members of the various communities, said his ministry was also ensuring that all existing court judgments on traditional rulers and town union matters were enforced
“Communities are very important component of this administration because that is where development takes place. Our desire is to ensure that these communities have the leadership that is most popular among them.
“We discourage imposition and caretaker committee that is why we provide an enabling environment for them to hold elections to get leadership that represents their collective wish,” he said.v(NAN)
