Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has urged the elected local government chairmen to prioritise service delivery to the people at the grassroots and look beyond partisanship in the discharge of their mandates.
He congratulated them on their emergence from the 2021 local government elections which the state conducted using electronic voting, for the second time after its introduction in 2018.
El-Rufai also reminded them that God who entrusts power to whom He chooses has chosen them to be the leaders of all citizens in their local government areas without regard to their political, ethnic or religious persuasions.
The Governor reiterated that the chairmen are now custodians of a sacred trust so they must be fair, just and reasonable in all their dealings, decisions and interactions.
He warned them not to discriminate against those that did not vote for them, neither should they favour those with whom they share the same ethnicity or religion as that will offend their oath of office.
The governor, who gave these pieces of advice while swearing-in 16 chairmen who were elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and five on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), noted that elections could not be conducted in Birnin-Gwari due to security concerns while the outcome in Jaba is subject of litigation.
El-Rufai recalled that his administration has taken careful steps to reform the local government system for optimum performance by addressing “the capacity deficit by directing the recruitment of professionals, including lawyers, engineers and architects for the local government service.
The governor also pointed out Kaduna State House of Assembly has passed the Traditional Institutions Law, which is a key part of his administration’s legislative agenda for 2021.
According to him, the new law establishes clarity on succession processes in the various chiefdoms and emirates which removes caprice in creating new chiefdoms or emirates.