Residents of Plateau have called on the newly elected Local Government Chairmen in the state to pay special attention to infrastructure development in their councils.
Some of the residents, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Saturday in Jos, decried infrastructure deficit across the 17 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
Mrs Kachollom Michael, a petty trader, called on the chairmen to compliment the efforts of the state government by building markets, roads, hospitals and schools.
Michael also advocated the provision of potable water by the councils and other critical needs of the people.
She challenged the Chairmen to live up to expectations by meeting the needs of the rural dwellers.
“With the financial autonomy local government chairmen have no excuse but to perform.
“Everybody now knows that they will be collecting their monthly allocation directly from the Federation Account.
“So, I urge them to concentrate on building and equipping hospitals, schools, markets, quality rural roads and other critical facilities.
“The availablity of infrastructure at the grassroots will curb rural-urban migration in the state,” she said.
On his part, Mr Alex Dimlong, a teacher and farmer, called on the chairmen to support rural farmers and promote all kinds of agricultural activities in their localities.
Dimlong advised them to support farmers with fertiliser and other farm inputs, adding that such move would encourage the farmers to strive towards making Plateau the agricultural hub of the country.
“We are blessed with arable land across the 17 LGAs, all we need is the support to scale up our farming activities.
“The Chairmen should ensure timely distribution of fertilisers and other inputs at subsidised rates to farmers.
“This way, Plateau will be the food basket of the nation and we will simply be addressing hunger and food insecurity,” he said.
Mr Danladi Mwantok, the Plateau Liason Officer in Abuja, however, raised deep concerns over the Supreme Court’s ruling on LGA autonomy.
Mwantok noted that there were still some gray areas in the ruling that had not been clearly addressed by the apex court, the separation of duties between the state and the local governments.
“One key component that the supreme court did not look at is the fact that states own almost everything in the local government.
“The staff of local government commissions and that of the local education authorities are all staff of the state.
“So what happens to all those people? Are they going to cede them to the local government?
” I think those areas are not clearly defined and they are gray areas that may hamper the implementation of the autonomy,” he said.
Mwantok however, said that in spite of the lacuna in the Supreme Court judgment, Plateau government had expressed its readiness to give total autonomy to its local governments.
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“However, Plateau is ready to go ahead, because I am aware that the chairmen were part of the last FAAC meeting.
“For it means more money in the local government, more resources in the local government, more development and better life for people at the rural level.
“The local government should be seen to be doing more because they have more funds, there should be some infrastructure on ground ” he said. (NAN)
