By Bassey Inyang / Calabar
A new Chairman, Bakassi Local Government Area, Mrs. Edisua Usang Iso, has been sworn-in by the state governor, Liyel Imoke.
Iso was sworn-in about one month after the chairmen of the other 17 local government areas were inaugurated by Imoke.
In his address at the event, Imoke admonished Iso not see her office as a means to an end, but as opportunity to put in place policies and programmes that would be of great benefit to the people. Imoke said that in the appointment of officers into the councils, it is important that those to be appointed have the capacity and understand the programmers of government.
“Do not appoint unqualified persons, who only come to work once a month to collect their salaries. All appointees should be fully engaged as we cannot continue to sustain the idleness of appointed officers in Cross River State, who see their salaries as largesse. They should stay in the Council every day to serve the people that elected them into office,” Imoke said.
Imoke said Bakassi has carved a niche for itself as a local government that gets its chairman sworn into office one month after others, which shows the beauty of democracy and the compliance to the rule of law and the Constitution by the political institutions in the state.
“Having ceded your ancestral home to another country and got resettled, I congratulate your sense of ownership in spite of your challenges,” Imoke said. Imoke assured that government would continue to address their challenges and that the people have the challenge of good governance, development, education, child care and health.
Imoke explained that elected and appointed officers at local government level have the responsibility to ensure that they are always in contact with the grassroots and urged the new Iso to improve on the performance of her predecessor.
Imoke enjoined all the elected chairmen to consult among themselves and cross-fertilize ideas in their quest to render quality service to the people because the era where elected officers gave excuses for non-performance was gone.
In her response, Iso promised to uphold the tenets of democracy and deliver on the mandate given her by the Bakassi electorate.