The 22 year old Urueoffong/Oruko Local Government Area made history on October 2, 2013, when Governor Godswill Akpabio, CON at the invitation of the local government, Chairman, Rt. Hon. Okon Tom Osung visited Urueoffong/Oruko to commission projects undertaken in the last six months by the Okon Osung administration. According to the Chairman, all the projects commissioned where initiated and commissioned within the span of six months to prove that vision, courage altruism and accountable leadership can sire genuine democracy dividends.
Governor Godswill Akpabio who could not hide his elation said that despite the fact that Urueoffong/Oruko local government area receives the least allocation amongst local government areas in the State, Chief Okon Osung has proven that it is not the fat sums that provide service, it is commitment and vision. The governor said that Urueoffong/Oruko was the first local government area he was visiting to commission local government projects maintaining that the uncommon transformation in Urueoffong/Oruko is a direct result of the uncommon transformation in the State. He praised the chairman for prudent management of resources submitting that he is very proud of what the chairman and his council have achieved.
The Chairman Obong Okon Tom Osung, JP has a robust political tutelage. He started out as a councilor, became a supervisor and rose to become council secretary and eventually a vice-chairman. It is apparent that while navigating through these offices, he had registered indelible imprints that suggested that if given a more executive opportunity and authority, he could perform creditably. When he therefore entered for the chairmanship election, many saw him as a change agent. Suffice it to say that he received overwhelming and unprecedented support from the electorate.
And Obong Okon Osung has not disappointed. In just 100 days in office, he has changed the story of his people. He has proven that grassroot administration being the local government can work and that it is not an idle appendage only used to complete governmental cycle. It is rather a tier of government that is closest to the grassroot and placed in a position to appreciate the conditions of those at that level of government. Accordingly, the leadership of that tier of government has a mandate to work towards alleviating the burden of those that occupy that social rung called grassroot. But over the years, government at the grassroot level has remained a notorious conduit pipe serving the role of pillaging. It is one level of government where there is no synergy between responsibility and the office. The occupants prefer the name but shirk the duties of the office. The Chairmen are not known to frequent their offices. It is reported that they are only available during JOINT ACCOUNTS from whence they proceed to a chosen venue to share the allocation. What a way to demonstrate criminal impunity? Often times the chairmen are known to be at daggers drawn with the councilors not because any of them is interested in preserving or protecting public interest but because some of them feel short-changed in the sharing of the allocation. Unending crises have therefore come to define local government administration with the common people being the worst for it.
It is why the performance of Chief Okon Tom Osung in Urueoffong/Oruko LGA has come as a surprise to keen watchers of local government administration in the State. It was also why the people of Urueoffong/Oruko rolled out drums on October 2, 2013 to celebrate the leadership of the local government as well as extend a rousing welcome to Governor Godswill Akpabio whom the Chairman stated provided the inspiration and model of uncommon transformation that propelled them to conceive, execute and complete the monumental local Government projects the governor was invited to inaugurate. The performing local government Chairman who expressed gratitude to the governor for honouring them with his presence described his visit as the homecoming of a great son.
The projects that where commissioned included an event centre at Eyokpifi, completed under six-months; Uruko Unity Hall, a place where about 18 villages are expected to gather to discuss development and progress of the local government and its people; a tastefully furnished ultra modern administrative complex, to serve as the secretariat of Urueoffong/Oruko LGA. The administration of Chief Okon Osung has also constructed a roundabout adjacent to the Unity Hall at Oruko to ease traffic and add aesthetic value to the area. Of course, it has also provided a drainage facility to combat flood and rescue both houses and environment within that precinct from destruction.
Chief Okon Osung has also expanded his coast of accomplishments in a manner that illustrate him as a man of robust vision. For instance, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the local government which hitherto stood at a paltry N30,000 (Thirty Thousand Naira) monthly has taken a favourable leap to a handsome N996,000.00 (Nine Hundred and Ninety six thousand naira) monthly with prospects of tripling in the next few weeks with the commissioning of the halls which would serve to generate revenue for the local government area.
Achievements have also been recorded in other areas like the purchase of two tippers, a brand new Toyota hiace to ply some routes within and outside the local government area. The administration is also partnering Seamouth Dredging Company Limited to dredge the Eyobiasang beach. The intention of the above are to ensure the generation of income for the development of the LGA. There is also significant achievement in the area of capacity building and human empowerment.
Chief Okon Tom Osung has used his performance index to point at the potentials of local government administration in addition to correcting an erroneous notion. It is common knowledge that most local government areas can not point at any significant achievement as they conveniently latch on the excuse of deductions by the State Government at joint accounts. They have often spoken in whispers about the overbearing nature of the State Government. But Chief Okon Osung in his address debunked this when he stated: “Our modest achievement is possible because of His Excellency’s policy of non-interference with local government funds”. The exemplary local government chairman maintained that the projects the LGA is celebrating were done with the arrears that accrued from SURE-P funds which His Excellency directed the Accountant-General to release to all the thirty-one local government areas. The disturbing question is, where did others keep what accrued to their local governments? This is the question the superlative performance of Chief Okon Osung has generated.
Local government area as a tier of governmental structure has a long history. With Ikot-Ekpene known to have provided the cradle of experimentation, the intent was to take development to the base of the social structure. The belief was that those who would manage the governmental structure of that tier would be part of that system and so would understand the needs of the people of that society. That perhaps informed Governor Akpabio’s policy of security villages in all the 31 local government areas to give vent to the original intention that gave rise to the creation of local government areas.
It is most disappointing to note that local government as a tier of government has failed woefully. Even the grading of rural roads which were common sights in the 70s, 80s and part of 90s is today an anathema in local government administration. Not to talk about a decent bore-hole for an essential like portable water which is considered a given in any reasonable society. The basic necessities which local government administrations should provide have been ignored turning that tier of government into a structure that can only be heard but no seen or felt. At the risk of sounding as an alarmist, many local government administrations have suffered such erosion of value that people don’t even remember if they still exist.
There is the need to revert to the spirit which gave rise to the consideration of local government as a tier of governmental hierarchy. We must reinvent that need and bring it into focus for local government administrations to begin to function again. The exemplar is what Chief Okon Osung has done in Urueoffong/Uruko which Governor Akpabio has already adjudged as the best.
Other serving LGA chairs should take a cue from Urueoffong Oruko. They should rest the recurring fights which are known to pervade the ranks of chairmen and legislatures in the local governments and explore ways of joining cause to rescue local government administration from the murky state it has been these past over two decades.
Joe Iniodu is a public affairs analyst.
Joe Iniodu is a public affairs analyst.
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