Enugu Council Poll: No Return Ticket For Chairmen Not Residing In Their Council Areas- PDP
Ahead of the coming Local Government Council elections in Enugu State, there are strong indications that the current chairmen who are not residing in their Council areas will not be given ticket by the ruling People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to run again.
It is common practice for Local Government chairmen, particularly those in rural councils, to always abandon their councils and reside, operate from the cities, thereby isolating themselves from the people and the problems of the council area.
Some of them only visit their offices when they are expecting the monthly allocation and if they have a personality who schedules to visit the council.
Once the allocation is shared and political stakeholders in the council settled, they move back to the city and run their councils with telephone calls.
This attitude is part of the reasons there are hardly meaningful infrastructural developments in the council areas executed by the chairmen.
During the swearing-in of the current chairmen, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi stressed to them the need to live among their people to be able to know what happens in the area.
Also, when the Governor distributed security vehicles to the state’s local vigilante, Forest Guards, he restated the charge for the chairmen to live with the people to be able to monitor the security situation in their area and effectively combat it.
However, the investigation revealed that most of the chairman in the rural council areas never adhered to the charge as they still reside and operate from Enugu metropolis.
The ruling party in the state has been following their activities and have decided that they would not be given the party ticket in the coming election.
The party’s decision, it was further learned, has received the blessing of the governor who has been the apostle of the reside-in-your council area.
However, the Chairmen who have had a hint of this are said to have been making frantic efforts through their political godfathers and other contacts, to reach the governor and the party leadership in the state, with promise that they would turn new leave if given second chance.
It is not known for now if a part will back down from the decision which the citizens have hailed as a measure that will help extend infrastructural development to the rural communities.
“For me, if it is true, it is a welcome development. These people only visit when there is money to share, maybe once or twice in a month.
“They don’t know what happens in the councils they head.
“But my fear is that the governor and the party will succumb to massive pressure that will soon come.
“If they insist on that, the people will be happy. How is it that if anything happens, particularly an emergency happens in a council area, it will take long before the chairman comes; this is not the way to take care of the people.
“They should stay with the people to know and feel their problems”, a political observer in the state said.
