The Anambra State government says it would soon establish a Local Government Road Maintenance Agency to ensure all year round motorable roads in all the communities in the state.
This was made known by Hon. Collins Nwabunwanne, the Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Town Union Matters.
However, he said during a press briefing in Awka that the agency would be funded through the state / local government joint arrangement that ensures judicial expenditure of the allocation to the third – tier of government.
According to Nwabunwanne, with the mandate of the governor, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo who, he said, has spelt out the right direction, the success of the local governments determines the success of the state.
The Commissioner said: “If the local governments don’t work, then the state government automatically collapses. One of the major challenges in the state was that the local government system was in disarray when we came on board.
“Workers were not going to their offices and with the new system of payment of salaries through the electronic banking, people were getting salaries without working. In fact, some of the workers only went to their offices towards the end of the month to confirm that their names were still on the payroll.
“When we investigated, we found out that the reason people were not going to work was because there were no basic working tools. We discovered that most offices either did not have chairs, or the available ones had broken down; there was no electricity, no computers and termites were growing in many offices because people no longer entered them.
The Commissioner also explained that most of the community leaderships have been democratized, recalling that at the time the present administration came on board, over 80% of the communities were run through caretaker committees.
According to him, the caretaker committees became a norm as a result of the influence of some powerful men in the various communities, who believed they must decide who became what in their areas.
“We will not impose anybody on them, but we will encourage them to evolve smooth means of electing their leaders, Nwabunwanne stated.
