Anambra State governor, Prof. Charles Soludo has restated his commitment to holding local government elections. The governor said that as a democrat he believes in the rule of law and emphasised that once the Supreme Court had spoken, it had spoken because the Supreme Court is the final authority.
He made the statement while reacting to the Supreme Court judgement granting financial autonomy to the local governments.
He said that though it was his promise to the people during his inaugural speech to conduct local government election, it had not been possible because of a particular lingering litigation that stopped local government elections in the past and that particular litigation was still in the courts, so to speak.
He however said, “We’re going to see how we handle all of that and to organise a local government election as appropriate.
“When I was elected into office, that’s one of the things I promised our people to hold LG election because in Anambra, we haven’t had LG election.
“I stated that in my inaugural speech. We’ve just passed the Independent Electoral Commission law of Anambra State and we’re putting together the institutions to be able to organize that. It is a promise I made and when I make a promise, I am serious about keeping it.”
Also, he noted that even the way that it had been run so far, under his administration, the resources of the local government get down to the local governments to address their staff. “I mean paying teachers, paying the pensioners and paying primary health workers and so on and so forth.”
Soludo restated that he believes in having a democratic system. “Like I said, I made a firm commitment to that and I don’t say what I will not do.”
Governor Soludo who emphasized the need for transparency, accountability and utilization of resources to assist in development also affirmed that the people’s money must get to the grassroots to be applied to their development needs.
“But at a fundamental level, yes, we need resources to get down to the grassroots and we need the people’s money to work for them at all levels, whether at the federal or the state and the local government.
“We need to promote accountability. We need to promote transparency in the utilization of public resources at all levels, to be able to lift the burden of the common man.”
