From Nwogha Ndubuisi, Abakaliki
Ebonyi State governor, Francis Nwifuru has announced the approval of local government autonomy in the state.
The governor made the disclosure during the swearing in of the 13 local government chairmen at the Ecumenical Center in Abakaliki on Sunday.
Nwifuru, who said the autonomy would be both financial and administrative, charged the newly elected chairmen to rise up to their responsibilities.
He also tasked them to take good care of stakeholders and appointees of government, including ward councillors and traditional rulers so as to continue to support the peace and unity of the state.
“You are now autonomous both financially and administratively, and I want to assure you that myself and wife including all the stakeholders in the state are with you.
“Any statement you make now, we read meaning into it including the governor, so, if this your autonomy will make you not to stay two years, so be it, because I will fight dirty and would not talk and that is the highest form of fighting.
“Again, I want you to care for those things that make our state beautiful and what are those things, they are our stakeholders; take care of them and don’t be carried away with what you are seeing on Facebook, because, if you act based on Facebook posts and fight any of them, that is when you are fighting the governor.
“Your job is to service the stakeholders and they are the youths, elders and women; empower them and make them comfortable,” Nwifuru stressed.
He equally enjoined them to take the issue of infrastructural development serious, as the state is still struggling and called on them to be prudent and assertive in the management of their resources.
The governor warned against imposition of traditional rulers on communities, adding that the time has passed when custodians of the traditions of the people are married to one wife or a catechist in the church and cautioned communities to stop involving those who have no deep knowledge to such positions, as it’s consequences are detrimental to the growth of the state.
