LarryBravo Nwaiwu, Enugu

Enugu State Governor, Dr Peter Mbah, has charged the newly elected Local Government chairmen in the state to be creative and innovative in their performance while focusing on optimising values that will create solutions through lean spending.

This is even as the council chairmen pledged to align their administration’s goals and objectives with the governor’s robust policies of disruptive innovation to bring quality governance to the grassroots.

The governor, who gave this charge, over the weekend in Enugu, at an ongoing three-day Enugu State Local Government Executive Leadership Retreat, with the theme, “Aligning Strategy for Sustainable Economic and Infrastructure Delivery at the Local Government Level”, reminded the council chairmen and their deputies that the euphoria of honeymoon was long over, saying it’s time to hit the ground running in their respective local governments.

Advising the participants on effective leadership, the governor said everybody in the council areas was looking up to them to deliver on their promises which should take the path of fast-paced governance model for their impact to be meaningful.

“When you develop your strategies, what will keep you moving is your love for your people. You must have a clear action plan. As a leader you must have measurable indicators. Your vision and action plan must be strategic and borne out of a framework that will guide your structure. In the private sector, you must have your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis. The same applies to the public sector,” Governor Mbah added.

While tasking them on transparency, prudence, accountability and accessibility to the people, the governor reiterated that public money, which is not their personal property,  must be used for the collective interest of the people.

Speaking on optimal performance, Mbah said the only way council leaders could transform their areas was through disruptive innovation, target setting, key performance indicators, frequent review and evaluation management and thinking outside the box to disrupt the status quo.

Insisting that the world is rapidly evolving through technology and innovation, the governor said his administration was clear on its envisioned goals through its Statement of Purpose which embodied the ongoing 260 Smart Green Schools, 260 Type-2 primary healthcare centres,10,000km road construction, eradication of poverty through human capital development and empowerment programmes, deliberate state policies on making Enugu an investment destination, and huge investment in other capital projects that will make the state a hub of investment opportunities for youth.

According to him, the little resources from the federal government were only a fraction of what the administration required to execute its ambitious plans leading to creative alternative financing model where the government mobilises domestic revenues, radically cuts overhead costs, revamps dormant assets and eliminates waste in governance.

Earlier in a welcome address, the Secretary to the State Government, Prof Chidiebere Onyia, said the training was aimed at communicating Gov Mbah’s agenda and vision to drive accelerated economic growth and achieve a zero percent poverty headcount in the state.

He said the administration’s GDP target of $30b would be driven by inclusive and sustainable economic growth, resilience, and restoration of peace and security for the people through alignment of all the levels of government in the state.

The retreat, he said, was designed to equip council leaders with the leadership skills, strategic tools and collaborative frameworks necessary to deliver on infrastructure and economic development in a way that aligns with the state priorities.

Speaking with newsmen on the benefits of the retreat, the chairman of Nkanu East council area, Hon Sydney Edeh, said they had already aligned their policies and programmes with Mbah’s strategic values and state objectives after painstaking and thorough study of the policies and governance philosophy of the state government.

Edeh, who is the State ALGON Chairman, pledged to work closely with his colleagues to fulfill their promises to the people, saying they would emulate the leadership orientation of the governor for sectoral integrated development.

The chairman of Enugu East Local Government, Pastor Beloved-Dan Anike, while lauding the leadership retreat, said Enugu East, with about 10 percent of the population of the state, were mostly youths that needed urgent empowerment such as entrepreneurial skills, digital skills, start-up capital and other trainings that would help in eradicating poverty and improving standards of living.

On his part, chairman of Aninri Local Government, Hon. Ugochukwu Nwanjoku, said some of them had already hit the ground running having been equipped to embark on the journey by the governor, whom he described as his mentor and role model.

“In line with the governor’s template, I have developed a five year policy, and in no distant time we will begin to implement it. We are determined, prepared and ready to work. We are going to replicate what the governor is doing in the state. Aninri will be a place where the governor will come to commission projects”, Nwanjoku said.

Also speaking, Chairmen of Igboeze South and Isi Uzo local councils, Barr. Ferdinand Ugwueze and Hon Obiora Obeagu, described the retreat as a practical step to development, adding that governor Mbah had equipped them with tools to reposition their council areas.