Abia State commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs, Sir Emmanuel Nwabuko, speaks on the administration of Gov T.A. Orji.

Let’s look at the state of   local governments in Abia State vis-a-vis the activities of your ministry ?

The function of the local government  is to make sure that government is taken to the grassroots.  And that is done by  making sure that the  state  government  supervises  the activities of the local government chairmen. Like the name implies, my ministry helps  the local governments  to  achieve their aim,  we take  care of the administration of local governments  as well as  the royal fathers who are the people  closer to the people in different autonomous communities. And here in Abia State, we have several autonomous communities.

We are having about 17 local governments and it was  arranged  to make sure that every traditional ruler has the opportunity to know what is happening in  the autonomous communities. So, the state government makes sure the allocation comes and used for what it is meant for, that is, the  development and making sure that there are good projects- people oriented projects. And most importantly, we make sure that the salaries of local government workers are paid as and  when due,  and  teachers in the local governments get their salaries  as well.

It may interest you that the last administration left  more than 59 months  in  outstanding salaries whereas  the governor  did not  tamper  with  the money that came  to the councils, he  gave them  free hand to manage their affairs. And when he found out that they were not  managing their affairs well, he had to introduce “Caretaker Committee”.

Between  February  and September 2010,  the whole arrears of salaries  were  cleared- amounting to about 2.9 billion naira. And up till today, salaries of workers have been taken as first line charge. Despite the fact that the allocation is  small,  we try to make use of what we have to meet the aspirations of the people.  Now,  salaries are paid as and when due.

Abia  State  is  20. How is  your ministry celebrating?

It is going to be a state occasion and my ministry is doing a lot. We have  many  projects to be commissioned. Some of them include road projects.

We are also distributing  transformers to communities.  We’ve also lined up  some  projects in all the local governments. Every local government is handling one project or the other, to be commissioned within this period.  Skill acquisition project is also  being carried out in all the 17 local governments  to reduce unemployment.

And what we have done is to make sure that  the skill acquisition  centres in all the local governments have the same standard so that what you see in one is obtainable in the others.

Is there any monitoring team that you have put in place to co-ordinate all these projects in the  local governments?

The  ministry is made up of several  departments. We also have directors manning the departments. The  staff do  the monitoring and we  give them all we can to ensure that the job  is  done properly. Recently, we had to buy vehicles for all the departments  to enable them do their monitoring with ease. We also have special  and personal assistants attached to  the local governments, who equally do the monitoring and send reports.

The state government seems to have achieved so much. What is the secret?

In   the past,  appointment  of commissioners was  done by lobbying and  without  knowing the background of  the nominees. That now is a thing of the past. That is why Abia is now liberated and everybody is happy.  Right now, you don’t even know who  is to be appointed. The people are so happy about the cabinet the governor has constituted, and  the  way the governor assigned portfolios is  like putting the  right peg in the right hole.
It  is really a thing of commendation because the governor knows that he has his image at stake. Knowing that if  any  of those commissioners fails- he is the one that will bear the brunt and that is why he is very careful. And so far, people  in the present administration are men and women of integrity.