By Abubakar Rabilu Gombe
The Gombe State Commissioner for Local Government and Community Development, Barr. Sani Ahmad Haruna, has urged the newly elected chairmen of the state’s 11 local government areas and 13 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to prioritise the pressing needs of their communities.
Haruna said identifying and addressing the basic needs of the people was essential to achieving meaningful development at the grassroots.
The commissioner made the call in Bauchi during a two-day orientation workshop organised by the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development for the newly elected local government and LCDA chairmen.
He urged the chairmen to identify the most pressing needs of their respective communities and channel them to the ministry for consideration and possible intervention.
Haruna said priority should be given to projects that have a direct impact on the lives and welfare of the people, particularly in education, potable water supply and electricity.
“You should know what your people need most and present such needs to the ministry so that we can consider how best to address them,” he said.
The commissioner spoke ahead of a presentation by the Director-General of the Joint Project Agency, Mahmoud Yusuf, on collaboration between the agency and local governments in the implementation of development projects.
Haruna said councils could seek the intervention of the Joint Project Agency or the state governor when they identified critical projects but lacked the resources or capacity to execute them.
He added that the ministry would follow up on such requests to ensure that priority projects were implemented for the benefit of the people.
Speaking during the workshop, Yusuf said collaboration between the Joint Project Agency and local governments was not compulsory where a council had the capacity to execute a project independently.
He cited the ongoing solar-powered electricity project in Balanga Local Government Area as an example of how collaboration could help address critical community needs.
According to him, the council chairman had repeatedly raised concerns over the lack of electricity in some communities, prompting efforts to address the problem.
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