As elected Enugu Council Chairmen bow out, Caretaker Committees likely to takeover

By MAURICE OKAFOR.

A new crop of leadership that will manage the affairs of the 17 local government areas in Enugu state is expected to be appointed by the state government very soon. The development arose from the fact that the tenure of the elected Local Government chairmen and Councillors who had ran the affairs of the 17 local government areas in the past two years has ended.
A public service announcement to the effect signed by the state commissioner for Local Government, Rural Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Deacon Okey Ogbodo, directed the chairmen to hand over to the Head of Personnel Management[HPM] in their respective council areas, on March 4,2024.
The announcement read,’ The tenure of the Chairmen and Councilors of the 17Local Government Areas in Enugu state, formally came to an end on the 4th of March,2024.
‘Consequently, all the Council Chairmen are expected to hand over to the Head of Personnel Management[HPM[ in each Local Government with effect from today, the 4th of March,2024.
‘This is in line with the extant laws guiding the tenureship of elected Chairmen and Councilors in our Local Government Council Areas’. Commissioner Ogbodo.

The expectation that Governor Mbah led state administration in the state will appoint Care taker Committees to run the affairs of the 17 Council areas stems on the fact that no Council election was conducted to replace the out gone chairmen and Councilors. A few months back, the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commissioner [ENSIEC], the agency in charge of conducting local government elections in Enugu state said that based on a court judgment by one of the registered political parties in the state against the timing of the election by ENSIEC , the next local government election in Enugu state will hold in October 2024,as against January 2024.
Commissioner Ogbodo’s mention of the extant laws guiding tenure of elected Chairmen and Councilors in the Enugu state local government system, ruled out the taunted speculations that the tenure of the Chairmen and Councilors would be extended by Governor Mbah, since no election that would usher their successors was conducted.
From all indication ,the state is left with the option of appointing caretaker committees to man the administration of the 17 Council areas until ENSIEC discloses it’s readiness to conduct a fresh council election in the state, Hopefully from October 2024 in compliance with the Court judgment instituted by one of the parties.
The Authority checks reveals that Enugu state has been among the states throughout the federation consistent with conduct of local government elections since the commencement of the fourth democratic dispensation in 1999,before now. There will be eight months gap,between now and the month of October 2024, when ENSIEC said it will be free under the law to conduct a new Council election in Enugu state.Definitely the state government will appoint Caretaker Committees.
The AUTHORITY Newspaper further checks shows that the development is coming at a point when Governor Mbah led administration in the state under it’s ‘Disruptive Innovation’ agenda, seriously want the local government system in the state to work effectively, as a third tier of government that is closest to the grass roots. Towards this direction, the Commissioner for Local Government, Rural Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Deacon Okey Ogbodo, late 2023, toured and interfaced with various stakeholders across the 17 Council areas of the state on how best to make the local government system in the state work optimally in delivering democracy dividends and other services to the rural dwellers.
Governor Mbah led administration in the state further consolidated it’s beam light on the operations of local government system in Enugu state with the just concluded re validation exercise, which sought to find out to extract the exact workers in every council area from the asserted ghost workers, etc.

In expectation, the next few weeks will unfold the names and pedigrees of members of the caretaker committees appointed by the state government n each of the council areas and the task set for them to accomplish that would impact on the lives of the rural dwellers and probably make a huge difference from the past ,within the next eight months or thereabout.

Of most important, the neglect of Agriculture either through mechanized farming or using the usual primitive methods by the elected Local government chairmen in Enugu state is the bane of food shortage and skyrocketing cost of local foodstuffs in the state. Research reveals that each of the 17 Council areas of the state is blessed with huge and fertile land mass that can grow a variety of crops, but Agricultural development with it’s economy of scales never appeared in their scale of preferences to enhance rural development and provision of job opportunities for unemployed teeming youths.

End.