El-Rufai Swears in Council Chairmen, Urges Them to Prioritise Service Delivery

John Shiklam in Kaduna

Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai has sworn in newly elected council chairmen, urging them to prioritise service delivery to the people at the grassroots.

The governor charged them to look beyond partisan politics in the discharge of their mandates.

He congratulated them for emerging victorious at the September council polls which was conducted through the use of electronic voting machines.

The governor said God, who entrusts power to whom He chooses, has chosen them to be the leaders of all citizens in their localities without regard to their political, ethnic or religious persuasions.

El-Rufai urged the chairmen to be fair, just and reasonable in all their dealings, decisions and interactions with the people.

He warned them against discriminating against those that did not vote for them and favouring those with whom they share the same ethnicity or religion as that will offend their oath of office. Those sworn in, included 16 chairmen elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC ) and five from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Elections could not be conducted in Birnin-Gwari LGA due to security concerns while the outcome of the election in Jaba LGA is subject of litigation.

El-Rufai said his administration had taken careful steps to reform the Local Government system for performance by addressing ‘’the capacity deficit by directing the recruitment of professionals, including lawyers, engineers and architects for the local government service.’’

He said: “Clear establishments have been prescribed and implemented for each LGA to ensure that they have just the optimal number of personnel,’’

The governor said many of the local governments were overstaffed and lacked the right quality of personnel to enable them deliver decent services at the local level.

He said with the support of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, a new local government administration law had been enacted.

The governor also said the Kaduna State House of Assembly has passed the Traditional Institutions Law, which, according to him, is a key part of his administration’s legislative agenda for 2021.

He added that the new law establishes clarity on succession processes in the various chiefdoms and emirates which removes caprice in creating new chiefdoms or emirates.