Chidiebele Obika | I-Witness News
Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra state has declared that against insinuations in some quarters that the Anambra State Local Government Administration Law seeks to protect the staff of the twenty-one local government areas, the primary school teachers, the primary health workers and pensioners.
The Governor made this revelation earlier today when he addressed the media on the Local Government Autonomy and Anambra Local Government Administration Law 2024 held at the Anambra State Governor’s lodge in Amawbia.
Soludo stated that,” In Anambra, we do not want to wake up to hear that some were paid salaries and others did not. This law seeks to create a transparent framework to ensure that the function mandated by the constitution for the local government are discharged as a matter of first line charge or the irreducible minimum. With these laws, workers in the local government service commission, teachers and primary healthcare workers can sleep with their two eyes closed. There’s no way to avoid collaboration.”
” The constitution mandated this collaboration with local government when in section 7, subsection 3, it provides that, ” it shall be duty of a local government council within the state to participate in the economic planning and development of the area referred to in subsection 2 of this section, and to this end economic planning board shall be established by a law enacted by the house of assembly of the state.”
” In other wards, the same constitution mandates joint planning between the state and the local governments so as to achieve that one same singular purpose of security and welfare of the citizens. This provision gave rise to the establishment of the Anambra economic planning board of which all the local government chairpersons are members and who among other things decide what proportion of their revenue they have to pool together to be able to deal with these services that are common to all of them.”
Continuing, the Governor noted that they would meet under the auspices or aegis of economic planning board. Which is similar to national economic council.
” This is something Anambra is pioneering. This economic council has all the mayors as members where they decide which resources to contribute to a joint local government account to pay for common services such as a. Payment of salaries, allowances and gratuities of pensioners of retirees under the local government service commission. b. Provision and maintenance of primary health services including all salaries, allowances, gratuities and pensions payable in that regard. Payment of allowances to traditional rulers and presidents general of communities, subvention of Local Government service commission and even for community security.
He further informed that health and education are on the concurrent list which the Federal Government and state government partner to carry out. ” Indeed, it means that absolute autonomy would mean that institutions that pool resources together would be scrapped, like local government pension board, anambra universal basic education board, the primary healthcare agency and so on and so forth.
He queried rather rhetorically thus, ” Does it then mean for example that the Federal UBEC or Federal Ministry of Health would have to deal with each of the 774 local governments in Nigeria in respect of primary education or primary health instead of coordinated through state UBEC or through state primary healthcare agency? and submitted that, “it would be a recipe for humongous chaos not only for the administration of local governments and pensions but moreso in the primary education and primary health sector.”
” In anambra, we have ASUBEB where all the teachers are pooled. There’s no teacher belonging to any local government in particular. From that pool, you post them to different local government areas. The same thing for Local government staff and local government primary healthcare workers.
” Absolute autonomy would mean that each local government would have to design its own primary education board, employ its own teachers and pay them whatever it can afford and whenever it can do so.
” Now that Anambra state has free education for both primary and secondary schools, some local governments may decide they can not afford it. It may even get to a point where some local governments might ask “non indigenes” who are teachers and workers in their local governments to “go home” due to budgetary or other constraints.
Today Anambra state under my watch is ranked number one among 36 states on fiscal transparency by budgit and among the top five states on financial sustainability.
” The new law strives to protect our gains so far and strengthen the system for the future consistent with the constitution and the law. The new laws are designed to protect our workers at the local level and protect our primary education and primary healthcare from chaos and collapse. Many teachers and pensioners wrote me to passionately plead that they do not want the agony in the 1990s and 2003 when some primary school teachers in some local governments were some primary school teachers were paid and others owed salaries.
He thanked state assembly members whom he described as progressives and ingenious for coming up with novel laws that meet modern needs.
The press conference was attended by the Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Somtochukwu Udeze, Majority and Minority Leaders of the Assembly, other Assembly members, Head of Service of the state, Barr. Theodora Igwegbe, Leader of APGA National Assembly Caucus, Rt. Hon. Dr Paschal Agbodike, Local Government Mayors, Commissioners like Chief Tonycollins Nwabunwanne, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, NLC, TUC Leaders among others.
