Enugu — THE Chairman of Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State, Uche Anioke has attributed the inefficiency of many council chairmen in the country to distractions and pressures from self-acclaimed stakeholders.

Anioke, who is currently campaigning for his second term, told The Moment that the activities of the so- called stakeholders posed a great threat to the development of rural areas.

According to him, the group had, over the years constituted themselves into a big stumbling block to developmental projects in rural areas, adding that they insist they must be 'settled' before any project would be initiated for the people.

Relating his experience over the last three and half years, Anioke said: 'Once you are elected a council chairman you must be wary of this group of people who pride themselves as stakeholders; they are ripping off the local government areas; in fact they are like a cancerous epidemic; they are actually in government but have constituted themselves into power blocs, because they are made up of people from the ruling party'.

Asked what kind of people should constitute stakeholders in a council area, he responded: 'ordinarily stakeholders in any local government are made up of bishops, DPOs, top ranking politicians from both the ruling and the opposition parties, traditional rulers, among others, but what we have today as stakeholders in many council areas are people who want to be preying on the finances of the council.

'For example, a particular man in this local government challenged me frankly that if I tar the roads without tarring his pockets that I have achieved nothing. Then I asked him, are we not executing projects in your area? And he asked me again if it were a bad thing having projects in his pocket. This is the same situation in many other council areas in Nigeria,' he lamented.

Anokie who has vowed to continue from where he stopped if elected for the second term continued, 'The painful thing is that these stakeholders are also in government receiving their salaries and enjoying all the privilege attached to their offices, but if there is pilgrimage, scholarships among others, they will want it for their wives and children at the expense of the less privileged ones. In fact they even want certain amount of money on monthly basis.

One even said if you do eighty percent work and give them per cent then what you have done is 20 per cent. If you go to our LGAs they will tell you the chairmen have not done anything, because they want all the contracts. This is one dangerous thing I have experienced as a council chairman. I am not saying there shouldn't be stakeholders but this level of extortion and intimidation are too frustrating but I succeeded in wading off these political marauders and jobbers'.

Speaking further on how he surmounted all the odds against him, he said beyond experience, a council chairman must be committed to the problems of the people, noting that the stakeholders will come up with a lot of allegations to cow you into bowing to their pressures.'

'These people needed to be told that the essence of having the LGAs is to bring government closer to the rural dwellers. But I thank God who gave me the heart and strength to overcome them and also Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State.

'My candid advice to all the so-called stakeholders is to let the council chairmen do their jobs while they equally face theirs,'he noted.

Anioke advocated for more funding and greater autonomy for local government councils, arguing that they have more pressing needs than the federal and the state governments.

According to him, 'I am rather saying that Local Government system should be totally independent; I call for a new revenue sharing formula for the local government administration. Virtually all the roads in Abuja and Enugu are asphalted but what about the rural areas, we also need to asphalt our roads, there are hospitals in the cities, there are traffic lights, potable water, electricity etc. The rural areas also need all these amenities.

'So the council areas need more money than the federal and state governments because we are disadvantaged and deprived of these amenities.

But for this to happen, the revenue sharing formula must first of all favour the council areas, and operation of any joint accounts as is being done today should discontinue. The state is independent of the federal so the LGA should also be independent of the states.'