The new chairmen of the six Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory have been charged to evolve a new and dynamic roadmap for grassroots development in line with the change mantra of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration.
The FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello on Tuesday while declaring open a one-day retreat for the new Area Council Chairmen, Vice Chairmen and Councilors said such roadmap should be holistically aimed at transforming FCT grassroots into communities where people can live, work and invest.
The Minister insisted that if the people at the grassroots must enjoy a new lease of life, then the Area Councils must effectively serve as transmitter stations for government’s change agenda.
His words: “To achieve this therefore, it is very necessary to strengthen institutional framework for effective service delivery in the Area Councils.”
According to him, “the onus to demonstrate good leadership does not fall on the FCT Administration alone but also on you the drivers of the FCT grassroots governance, that is our Council Chairmen and Council members”.
He however advised the new Council officials to go back to the basics in the areas of environmental hygiene and general cleanliness at the community level.
“Whatever you do, as long as you don’t imbibe in the people under your Area Councils the need to be hygienic, to be clean right from the basic family unit, then whatever that is being done is going to be built on shaky foundations,” the Minister stressed.
In his opening address, the FCT Permanent Secretary, Babatope Ajakaiye remarked that the retreat is the second of the set of the three capacity building programmes arranged to equip the newly elected Area Council officials in the FCT for the rigorous job ahead.
Ajakaiye noted that the significance of the retreat cannot be overemphasized because of its focus and theme, which is, “On roadmap for grassroots development of the FCT Area Councils in line with the Federal Government’s Change Mantra”.
He described the retreat as unique because it has in attendance civil servants who are also principal officers in the Area Councils being the first line of officers the elected officials and principal officers sit together with to receive the same information on the ways affairs should be conducted and go back to work together amicably.
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