Make it a Real Development Accelerator!

The holding of Regional elections followed by the election of the Regional Council top officials has no doubt turned an important page in the country’s governing history. The organization of the said election must have pushed under the carpet doubts as to whether or not this system of governance instituted in the 1996 constitution and which had long outlived its expectation would finally go operational.  Created against the backdrop of increasing demand from the population to have a say in the management of their affairs, a burning desire which ignited opinionated argument on whether to adopt the Federal system of government or a unitary decentralized system to better achieve that goal, the Regional Council is today looked at as the litmus test towards empowering the local population. The question on many lips now is how far and how efficient will Regional Council go in pushing the regions’ seed on the development checkered board. This is surely a very important question to be asked by a people who have been boiling with anxiety to see things change for the better in their various regions.
This anxiety towards self-reliance development was fast reaching fever height with the turn of events as could be seen from the majority of the people who could not continue to swallow decisions on projects initiated from the central administration, some of which did not respond to the aspirations of the local population. Now, their cry has been heard. As the structures to manage the new born are being setup, the answer to the rhetorical question remains very much in the hands of those who have been elected.  Memories remain fresh on all that electoral candidates promised the population during their campaign. Their promise centred so much on oiling the infrastructure development machine, ensuring that the population enjoys a medley of social amenities and making sure peace reigns in their communities.  Power, it is said, is how it is used and not necessarily how it is obtained. If the Regional Councilors were to put to practice what is stated in the text regulating their activities, each regional council executive will incidentally possess administrative and financial autonomy in the management of the region’s affairs.  The text gives them the powers to promote economic, social, sanitary, educational, and cultural development of the region among others.
As the structures to pilot the management of Regional Councils are being put in place, it is important to recall the disappointment in the population on the centralized system of government. The regions saw in it a system wherein development had become the affair of some m...