By Emmanuel Uffot
The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly last week, shut down the Executive Bill to compel all the Chairmen of the 31 Local Government Councils in Akwa Ibom State to reside in their respective Local Government Areas while on office. The Bill was forwarded to the House by the Governor Pastor Umo Eno together with three other Bills last August.
Whereas the other three Bills from the total of four namely, Peace Corps Bill, Statutory Boards Bill and Akwa Ibom State Bureau for Statistics scale through second reading, the one on the local government chairmen residing in their localities was withdrawn and step down from further legislative action.
Expectedly, the withdrawal of the bill has generated some form of discourse and diverse reactions.
Explaining the reason behind the action of the House, the deputy leader of the House and member Representing Nsit Ubium State Constituency Barrister Effiong Bob who had moved the motion for the withdrawal of the Bill with the approval of the Speaker Honourable Udeme Otong, had based it on the Standing Order of the House. He noted that the Standing Order 7 rule 11, made it clear that ‘ A member in – charge of a bill may move a motion without notice for its withdrawal either before commencement of public business or on the order of the day for any stage of the bill being read ‘.
He went further to revealed the reason much later to newsmen after plenary. According to him, the withdrawal of the bill was at the instance of the executive arm being the Governor who sent the bill. Barrister Bob, reportedly said the Governor had communicated his resolve to the legislature to stop further deliberation on the bill as he does not intend to go on with it.
In another breath, the House Spokesman ( Chairman House Committee on Information) Honourable Jerry Otu who represents Ikot Ekpene/ Obot Akara State Constituency said the shut down and withdrawal of further deliberation on the bill which had passed first reading was informed by the discovery by the House that it would amount to duplication since a similar bill on the same matter was earlier forwarded to the last Assembly by former Governor Udom Emmanuel.
However, notwithstanding the reasons put forward by the respective House officers, facts have emerged on why the House withdrew the bill, and if truly the reason came from the Governor, why he did so.
Findings revealed that despite the good intention of the Governor on the matter going by complaints over the years that chairmen and principal officers of the local government councils shun living in the areas for Uyo, he was pressurised though subtly to drop the bill. For them, such an initiative has to be gradual and not hasty given the issues involved.
The Governor we gathered was told that before that could work a lot of things have to be put on ground in the areas to make it habitable to the chairmen.
For instance, they have to be standard blocks of flats well furnished for them, access roads and electricity among others which is currently lacking in majority of the local government headquarters. They reasoned that the venture now, at this trying period will gulp so much money that would have rather been used by the governor to implement his ARISE Agenda blueprint.
Findings further revealed that, one of the key issues that may have moved the bill to be jettisoned is the vexed issue of joint account.
Under the current regime of joint account which is a replicated in many states, the state government received local government areas allocation being the 3rd tier government on their behalf. Compute amount for salaries, stipends as subvention for sundry services and running of the administration/ overhead and other miscellaneous for the principal officers send same and keep a fraction purportedly for capital projects in the areas.
This development which has been frowned at over the years has resulted in starving the council’s of needed funds for the execution of any meaningful projects.
As a result of this, over 90 percent of local government chairmen in areas other than the few developed ones, live in Uyo and only go to the councils mostly on Mondays and when allocation comes.
That status quo has made the headquarters of the affected local government areas still remaining glorified villages with no infrastructures like good access roads, electricity, small scale businesses among others beffiting headquarters despite many years of creation.
This has by extension, inhibit development in the respective Local government areas prompting calls over the years for the scrapping of local government system.
The thinking of the Governor and rightly so, was that the chairmen and other principal officers living in their domain while in office will enable them drive development of their areas.
What is even curious and worrisome as our findings revealed is that, even when some of the local government chairmen were residing in their areas before their election, as soon as they are elected executive Chairmen, top most in their priority list is to move to Ewet Housing and rent a house temporarily until when they could muster enough funds to either buy a property or build a mansion in some cases which gulps millions of Naira.
So as an unwritten law, living in Ewet Housing and now Shelter Afrique has become a status symbol for top politicians and political office holders including the chairmen of local government areas.
So with all these which was painted to the Governor by advisers most of whom have been in the system, mandating the chairmen to live in their locality which the Governor intended with the bill would have been an arduous task that would raise dust and perhaps distract his focus.
This we gathered informed why the governor caved into pressure to stay action on his move in that direction.
It could be recalled that the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari made moves to grant financial autonomy to the local governments which would have resulted in the councils in Akwa Ibom State getting their allocations direct from the federation account, but curiously this move did not receive the blessing of the local government chairmen.
The council chairmen were not favourably disposed to that lofty arrangement of autonomy that other stakeholders were craving for them. ( A question of crying more than the bereaved).
The reason for their position which may not be known to many is that they were comfortable with the status quo of states collecting their allocation and sending a fraction to them, as they hide under that to blame lack of funds as reasons for their inability to achieve much in terms of infrastructural development of their local government areas.
Years back in the 90s under during the administration of former military President General Ibrahim Babangida, some sole administrators of local government areas perhaps prompted by the respective Military Governors, mooted this same idea of chairmen living in the local government areas of their domain.
In Akwa Ibom State specifically, one of them was Pastor Fabian Obot, then Sole Administrator of Nsit Ubium Local Government Council. He initiated the building of blocks of flat for the principal officers of the council in Ikot Imo/ Ikot Inyangeti axis. But this became an effort in futility. The blocks of flat were abandoned and became haven for snakes and overgrown with weeds.
So for Governor Umo Eno, it is a question of going back to the drawing board on the said bill while waiting with enthusiasm for the other three Bills to sail through.
For the records, his other three Bills that have scaled through second reading and currently receiving attention at the respective committees are, The Ibom Peace Corps Bill that seeks to establish a body that will complement the job of other security agencies in the state, Bill for Statutory Boards that seeks to convey corporate status on the boards and commissions, agencies, corporations and other bodies established by laws of the state and Bill for Akwa Ibom State Bureau for Statistics which seeks to establish a Bureau that will serve as the main state agency responsible for the development and management of official statistics.
