‘You’re assuming a sacred mandate’ — el-Rufai swears in new council chairmen

Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna, has sworn in the newly-elected council chairmen of LGAs in the state.

In his remarks at the swearing-in ceremony which took place on Monday, el-Rufai urged the council chairmen to ensure that they carry out their duties in line with the constitution.

Those sworn in included 16 chairmen elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC ) and five from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Election could not be conducted in Birnin-Gwari LGA due to security concerns, while the outcome of the election in Jaba LGA is the subject of litigation.

El-Rufai urged the council chairmen to be fair in their dealings with the people, irrespective of their political affiliations.

“From whatever party you have emerged, you are today assuming a sacred mandate to do right by all your people in accordance with the laws of the land and the oaths you have just taken,” he said.

“You must, therefore, be fair, just and reasonable in all your dealings, decisions and interactions with the people. You must not discriminate against those that did not vote for you, neither should you favour those with whom you share the same ethnicity or religion as that will violate your oath of office.”

While speaking on the past administration, the governor said there were issues with quality representation at the local government level.

“The fact is that many of the local governments were not only overstaffed, but they lacked the right quality of personnel to enable them decent level of social services at the local level. They had been deformed into little more than patronage machines,” he said.

“This crisis of capacity reflected for example in the clamour by international donors that primary health care should be moved from the local governments to the state government’s control.

“We hope that in a few years, we’ll be able to restore primary health care back to the full and effective control of capable local governments as envisaged by the constitution.”

El -Rufai added that with the support of the Kaduna state house of assembly, a new local government administration law had been enacted.

He also said the Kaduna assembly has passed the Traditional Institutions Law, which, according to him, is a key part of his administration’s legislative agenda for 2021.

He added that the new law establishes clarity on succession processes in the various chiefdoms and emirates .