True democracy will only take place at local govts when given autonomy ― Lawmaker

A member of the House of Representatives, Herman Hembe on Saturday said that true democracy at the third tier of government will be possible only if local government areas are granted full autonomy.

Hembe stated this when he played host to some academics drawn from higher institutions of learning across the state, such as; Benue State University, Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State Polytechnic, Ugbokolo, Colleges of Education in Oju, and Katsina-Ala as well as Colleges of Health Sciences.

In an interactive session with the Theme “BENUE: Rediscovering our Path to greatness, Hembe who represents Vandeikya/Konshisha Federal Constituency at the lower chamber and gubernatorial hopeful on the platform of APC said that it is given the mandate comes 2023, he would abolish the joint account between the state and local governments so as to make the third tier of government viable.

The lawmaker maintained that by virtue of their position in the society, academias should form the nucleus of every society, adding that he needs to tap from their reservoir to guide him in the new political journey and urged the lecturers to join hands with him to be able to lift the state.

Hembe regretted that Benue, despite its human and natural resources had yet to attain its desired progress.

According to him, “academia should form the nucleus of every society that is why I invite these erudite learned people who God has chosen as a reservoir of knowledge to unveil my aspiration and to urge you to join me in this journey so we can jointly lift the state from its present position.

“If given the mandate, one major thing to do is to ensure that we have true democracy at the local government and this can be actualised when the joint account is proscribed, this will grant the local government the desired autonomy and makes the third tier of government viable.”

Hembe highlighted some challenges confronting the state such as Insecurity, infrastructural deficit, near collapse of the health sector both at the Primary Health Care and Secondary level, the educational sector, and the moribund Industries promised to fix the sectors if given the opportunity to serve comes 2023.

According to him, “Benue State should be the home of Agriculture where it can produce all year round but today it is far from it, while taxation has become worse of, the actual revenue generated goes into private pockets which should have been channeled into constructing road networks to ease transportation and movement of goods and farm produce.

He also assured of giving more attention to Benue Civil Service through training and retraining of the workforce for optimum capacity.

Some of the academics who spoke at the occasion identified lack of political will, inordinate ambition, and personal aggrandizement as the cause of the state underdevelopment.

One of the speakers, Professor Gabriel Akume from Benue State University said, Benue does not need errand boys but someone with an independent mind, progressive, tried and tested hands, that is exposed and has the capacity.”

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