Stakeholders in local government administration in Enugu State, Friday, called for the reviving of development centres across the seventeen local government areas in the state.
THE WHISTLER reports that there are four development centres in each of the 17 local government areas of the state.
It was first created by former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani while ex-Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi created more. However, most of the development centre headquarters have been abandoned with workers posted to them hardly seen in their offices or cleaning them.
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Chief Kelvin Ezugwu served as the administrator of Nsukka-East Development Centre.
He said the goal was to bring development closer to rural areas, but regretted that the goal had been defeated by the subjugation of the development centres by the main LGAs.
He said, “Former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani created development centres and made them equal to the main local government areas. If allocations for LGAs came, they would be shared equitably with the development centres.
Then if allocations for Nsukka LGA were released, they would be shared into four, with the main LGA taking the lion’s share.
Then Nsukka East, Nsukka West and Nsukka Central would get theirs. They would develop their respective areas.
“But when former Gov Sullivan Chime came, he made development centres to be under council chairmen. That was where the trouble started. The idea was that administrators would be taking directives from council chairmen.
“Some council chairmen never allowed their administrators to do anything, except receiving their salaries at the end of the month. In our own case, we were getting our salaries and our imprests at the end of every month.
“I managed our markets and the borrow pit at Opi. From there, I could get revenue to develop my area, such as market construction, and organising competitions for school children.”
He suggested ways of making the development centres functional.
According to him, “It would have been a good thing if development centres were given stable allowances for developmental purposes or given some IGR points.
” If you make somebody a development centre administrator, and he relies only on his salary, and whatever the LGA chairman gives him, he is just like a staffer of the mother LGA, which is not good.
“But if development centre administrators are not given any power except collecting salaries, the best option is to scrap it. If an administrator is not comfortable, he may have no capacity to even discipline those working under him.
“Be informed that these development centres have heads of departments, treasurers and other key officials, but they do nothing because they don’t have any source of income.”
Dr Fabian Onah, a public administrator, advised Governor Peter Mba of Enugu State to make the development centres functional in the overriding public interest.
He said, “They are conceptualised like the LG councils created by President Bola Tinubu when he served as governor of Lagos State.
“Those in Lagos are functioning properly, but Enugu’s own are dead. If you go there, you cry over dilapidation of infrastructure.
“Workers are never seen there. Council chairmen care less. The business is simply to earn salaries and wait for another month. The blame goes to council chairmen who supplant these development centres for nothing sake.”