Adamawa state governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri on assuming office granted financial autonomy to local governments to enable them meet up with the needs of their people after many years of diversion of their resources. MUAZU ABARI on how it affects a particular council in Adamawa state.
How it was
From Yola to Mubi, the commercial nerve centre of Adamawa state, it is always a stressful journey of over three hours even on a smooth road.
On reaching Mubi, what is supposed to be a short journey of not more than one hour to Gella, the headquarters of Mubi South always ends up as another stressful journey due to bad roads. More so is the fact that most communities and villages are situated in mountainous areas. This is in addition to the problem of lack of basic infrastructures despite the abundant resources in the area.
As if this is not enough, insurgency reared its ugly head and left behind a sour taste as the people continue to count their losses in terms of human lives, and destruction of their means of livelihood.
To further compound the people’s woes, the federal allocations which would have served as a relief had always been diverted by previous administrations under the guise of state /local governments joint account thereby leaving the local councils with peanuts that can’t even pay salaries, not to talk of executing projects. This results in stagnation of local governments such that elected chairmen are absconded from their duty posts and relocated to the state capital due to lack of funds.
Changing the narrative
Thanks to Gov Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri who upon assumption of office immediately consulted with state lawmakers on the way forward, a development that resulted in granting financial autonomy to local governments in the state. Blueprint investigation shows that this move now enables the councils to execute many projects within the last one year of Fintiri’s administration due to availability of funds at their disposal.
In Mubi-south LG
A recent visits to some local governments in the northern senatorial district battered by insurgency especially Mubi-south chaired by Hon Rufai Jingi who also doubles as the state ALGON chairman speaks volumes about how financial autonomy has completely changed the face of development at the grassroot levels in the state.
Jingi’s administration in Mubi south inherited a local government grounded with dilapidated infrastructures and basic amenities. This is beside the absence of access roads to various communities and villages in addition to a backlog of unpaid accumulated salaries, among other challenges. However within a few months, in office he was able to re-write history through prudent leadership. Mubi town to Gella road which used to be a nightmare to commuters has become motorable just as the council secretariat which was in shambles with dilapidated structures now wears a new look and completely renovated thereby making it an attractive centre with conducive working environment.
The local government have also witnessed massive constructions and rehabilitations of roads and creation of access roads to link various communities within the local government and other parts of the state as well as constructions of culverts and bridges to facilitate movements of people, goods and services from one place to another in order to boost economic activities.
For instance, there are many ongoing road constructions in Mujara, Dirkashi, Sarkida, Duhu, Kwaja, among many other communities.
Within the local government the most shocking of these roads is that of Kwaja situated on a mountainous area which ordinarily seems to be beyond the capacity of a local government, but it is being constructed by the Jingi-led administration to the amazement of the people.
He has also renovated some schools, constructed and equipped health centres to meet up with the health needs of his people, in addition to training women and youths on various skills acquisition and empowerment programmes.
Council chair speaks on benefits of policy
Speaking to journalists in his office in Gella, he attributed the successes recorded by his administration and other local governments in the state to financial autonomy granted them By Gov Fintiri which enables them to execute so many people- oriented projects in their various local governments.
“It has not been easy, but I thank God for the supports and cooperation of His Excellency, the governor of Adamawa state, Hon Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri who has given us his words and stood on his ground to make sure that local government autonomy comes into reality in Adamawa state. We are fairly doing well in terms of anything you can think of and succeeded to deliver dividends of democracy to our people as a result of autonomy.
“There are two things in local government administration. If you are not focused, you will end your tenure without achieving anything because a lot of programmes would come to the local government, for instance, they will tell you we are having seminar, we are having this or that; if you are fond of all these, you will end up your years in office without working for your people that elected you.
“So in my own case, I disabused my mind from all those things that will not add value to my people; instead I concentrated on what would improve the living conditions of my people and give them results because democracy is government of the people by the people and for the people. It means the people that voted you have their own problems and as a true son of the soil, you must dance to their tune. That is why most times I am at home with my people seeking their advice and receiving their complaints and demands, then together with my council we would sit down to iron out the issues and solve those we can solve within our capacity.”
On opposition’s claim of diversion of local governments funds due to the autonomy, he said, “This is a blatant lie by the opposition in their desperate efforts to tarnish the image of Fintiri’s administration and distract him from moving Adamawa forward; unfortunately for them, they have failed woefully as the people have refused to be hoodwinked. I am the ALGON chairman in the state; if we don’t have financial autonomy, you won’t have seen the developmental strides you are seeing in our local government today.
“If we don’t have financial autonomy, I wouldn’t have been in my office now attending to development needs of my people just like we experienced in the past where local governments chairmen absconded. If that insinuation is true I would have been residing in Yola but I am residing and always at home with my people and in the office including Saturdays. That’s to tell you that we have autonomy and control of our resources so we have to be on ground to attend to the needs of our people.
“But you know in politics, you will hear a lot of things but it is not true. There is autonomy and it has come to stay. In the present administration, the governor has never asked us to do something for him or on his behalf. He is an exceptional leader and our resources come to us intact except for statutory deductions, that Is why we are able to execute so many projects in our various local governments.”
On his stewardship and what prompted him to embark on all these projects, Jingi said, “Thank god you have gone round to our project sites to see things for yourself before coming here. You have seen most of the things we are doing, the ones we have completed and the ones that are ongoing so no need for me to blow my own trumpet. The secretariat you are inside now you can take a view of it and go round to ask our workers and the masses out there on how they have been coping before and now that I took over the affairs of the local government in the last few months.
“On the issue of what prompted me, first of all, it is the zeal to do the work and make life easier for my people. All these projects are in consultation with our people in line with our peculiar challenges in this local government because we always carry them along in our decisions and project execution. Most of the roads you have seen we just have to do them if not there would be problems. Once it is the rainy season, it causes a lot of havoc to our people and stampedes their movement.”
