by By Admin
A Veteran journalist and human rights activist who was declared a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International, has stated that Councilors are not Chairman boys, but are legislators and representatives of their various communities, who have control of an arm of government at the local level to oversight and checkmate the chairman for effective management of our resources and community.
Agba disclosed this on his verified Facebook account today 17th June, 2020 in an attempt to intimate councilors who have little or knowledge of the role of a councilor, as a respond to one of his friends who is a serving councilor in one the local government council who sought his (Agba) counsel.
Find full text of Agba Jalingo’s solicited counsel.
“Agba, We Be Chairman Boys?
“Wetin be Councilor work sef?
“After dem swear us in, our leaders dey tell us say we must be loyal to Chairman if we no wan get problem. E dey sound like threat. Are we supposed to be chairman boys? Wetin be councilors work sef?
“No mind dem. Na shakara. If una reach ten ba; six of you by simple majority fit remove the chairman sef, if una fit agree. But that is not the first thing to do……
“For you that is reading this, I don’t know what immediately comes to your mind when you have a discussion like the one above, with one of the newly elected councilors in Cross River state.
“In case I am already boring you with my hackneyed expletives about Cross River, please kindly understand with me. I have determined decidedly, supposedly, intentionally, to deliberately pay additional attention to how local government funds in our State are judiciously utilized.
“The NFIU rules and the assumption of office by the newly “elected” chairmen after five years, have both combined to give me a new task of ensuring that we sustain the discussion around how the N3BILLION LG funds that goes to the 18 LGAs in our State monthly is expended.
“But the goal of making these huge resources work for our rural people will remain illusive if councilors who are lawmakers at that level, do not know their duties. As honest as my councilor friend is, in that our conversation and with all the willingness he has demonstrated to learn, it is also a lesson to the electorates to up their game and resort to leaders who have a clear idea of their duties before take off.
“Councilors are like Senators and House of Representatives members at the federal level or like members of State Houses of Assembly at the state level. They are the ones saddled with the constitutional role of making by-laws for the administration of LG councils in Nigeria.
“A by-law is a rule or law established by an organization or community to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authority. The higher authority, the State House of Assembly in our case, establishes the degree of control that the by-laws exercise.
“Like federal and state lawmakers, councilors are elected to represent their local communities in the running of their local council and they have very important roles to play.
“Among others, they are meant to communicate Council policy and decisions to people in their Wards.
“All councilors are meant to be advocates for their communities and are ‘case workers’ for their individual constituents when advice or support is requested, while also acting as advocates for the best interests of their Wards and also the wider council area.
“Councilors are also meant to lobby for local concerns and issues that are important to their various Wards.
“They are meant to be resolving potential conflicts among community organizations.
“It is part of their role to support communities to develop their own solutions to problems in their area, where appropriate
“Balancing competing demands for resources when making decisions in the best interests of the whole LGA.
“These tasks are usually achieved in chambers through a set of organized rules which include:
“Standing Orders: These are rules to ensure that council and committee meetings are run properly, and decisions are made in an open and accountable way.
“Contract Standing Orders: The rules for buying goods and services, as decided by the council.
“Financial Regulations: Rules to make sure the council is honest and open when dealing with public money.
“After election, you will now be able to contribute to the development and review of the council’s policies through your role in challenging and scrutinizing the work of the council. Councillors are the only locally democratically elected community representatives capable of holding public services to account for their performance within local areas and on behalf of local communities. Having been sworn in, councillors now have a key role to play in scrutinizing and monitoring how well services are delivered by the council and its partners.
“Be mindful that Councils are not just service providers. They also play a regulatory role in issues such as planning, licensing, trading standards and environmental health.
“This involves councillors playing quasi-legal roles on special committees. These regulatory committees operate within a specific set of legislation and guidance that will be provided by the councillors.
“Since no politician can yet get into office in Nigeria without political party affiliation, councilors are as well expected to remain affiliated, disciplined and report back to their parties.
“They should engage with their local party organization and meet regularly as a political group within the Ward to continually review party policy to be abreast of council policy.
“In a nutshell, councilors are not Chairman boys. Rather, like federal and state lawmakers, they are legislators and representatives of their various communities who have control of an arm of government at the local level to oversight and checkmate the chairman for the effective management of our resources and our communities.
“Finally, there is also a need to reassess the quality of people we elect as councillors considering the important roles they play in the administration of our councils and the volume of money that now goes into the councils”.
Thank you and God bless Cross River
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.
#FollowOurMoney
#HoldLeadersAccountability
