Goodluck Idele is the Transition Committee Chairman of Isoko South Local Council, Delta State. In this interview with Special Correspondent Sam Akadoro, he speaks on activities in the council and what his administration is doing to transform it. He also opens up on issues with the state chapter of Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), adding that introducing ‘Clocking Machines’ in Isoko South will eliminate truancy, ghost workers syndrome, reveal actual staff strength and reduce cost of running the council among other issues. Excerpts…
Sir, we understand that NULGE, Delta State chapter, wants you removed as the transition committee chairman. Is this true?
It is a long story. Let me start by saying that when I was sworn into office on November 12, 2012, 623 council staff excluding teachers were handed over into my care.
Also, I met a backlog of two and half months of unpaid salaries of both senior and junior staff. Although we are just a transition committee but by His Grace, I was able to clear these backlog within three months. After paying the backlog, we decided to look inward in terms of the staff strength because I could not feel the impact of workers in the council. Then I called my Head of Personnel Management (HPM) and asked how many people were supposed to be working outside the council. I further called members of my committee to critically look into the issue because when you have over 500 staff on ground, you expect the council to boom with activities. So we decided that there must be an internal personnel audit which was done and at the end of the day, they began to call their brothers and sisters wherever they were to attend.
For that one month we did it, the council was filled up. I saw all manner of persons that I had never seen before. At the end of the exercise we discovered about a hundred persons who did not come to work and could not be accounted for. The internal audit saw excuses sprouting, ranging from those who were allegedly on maternity leave, official excuse and all such excuses. Then the NULGE came in.
What steps did you take thereafter?
We set up a joint committee comprising NULGE and members of the transition committee with a view to clearing whoever was indicted.
Eventually, about 50 persons were indicted after the screening exercise by the committee, thereby reducing the staff strength from 623 to 573 which means about 50 persons could not be accounted for, thus removing them from the pay roll.
But that did not go well with them because it affected the check-up dues of NULGE. Again, you know some of these persons don’t come to work, they tell Mr ‘A’ to sign for them because they are working elsewhere; so when you discover such a thing, they feel unhappy about the issue. But we did not go to sleep. We decided to study the situation more.
There was another time I called my HPM to organise a meeting of all staff excluding those who work with traditional rulers, health centres and others which we put at 95 of them. After that meeting with the staff, my HPM said only 135 to 138 attended the meeting. What does that indicate to you? It means a lot of them are not on ground. So it needs management to decide.
And what have you decided on this situation?
This is a major leak of finances of the state. This is why the NULGE president, chairman and chairmen, all of them, want to fight me. Because we want to introduce ‘Clocking Machine’ in Isoko South Council like is done in the Delta State House of Assembly.
They (NULGE) know that if clocking machine is introduced in Isoko South local government and is successful, and perhaps cuts staff strength from 500 to 300, other local government councils will follow suit because our amiable governor, Uduaghan, would also want it effected in other local government councils.
So NULGE is claiming it has one million staff and collects N100 from each staff as check-up dues which amount to millions of naira every month. If that happens (reduction in our council strength), that would drastically reduce its intake to fewer millions. So they are fighting to ensure this (staff verification) does not happen. The body is ready to do anything to drive the Isoko South Transition Committee chairman off because he has discovered their secrets. You can imagine they went on air in DBS, radio and newspapers to fabricate false stories that I am owing three months salary of both junior and senior staff, whereas it’s only one and half for senior that I owe.
Are you saying part of the fight against you by NULGE is the fear of introduction of the clocking machines?
Yes, that is the major issue; if not why are they particular about Isoko South? You can find out from the officer in charge of salary (o/c salary). Isoko South is owing just one and a half month salary to only senior staff; junior staff have been fully paid.
Some local government councils owe three months salaries but have not gone on strike. The problem now is that Isoko South has discovered a major leak in the salary payment whereby people who are being treated as staff of the council work in different places like Abuja, Lagos, Asaba and so on. And they know that by introducing the clocking machines, if you are not on ground, you are not on ground.
When it was introduced in Delta State House of Assembly, things changed. Now everybody goes to work, and you know the real number of the workers. So I am advocating the use of clocking machines in Isoko South local government council. That is why they are fighting me; they are doing everything that will bring Goodluck Idele down.
What is the story behind the polio sensitisation programme in the council?
The governor had said he would come to Isoko South to flag-off the second phase of polio sensitisation programme recently, but what did they do? The NULGE said it must never take place. They went on strike when they heard the governor was coming. It was later shifted to June 19 but they continued the industrial action, hence the governor shifted it to Koko beach. Imagine that. They stopped all health centres from functioning. Do you know that when the Head of Department for primary health care started the immunisation on the 10th in preparation of the official flag-off by Governor Uduaghan, NULGE officials as instructed by their state president who was in
Brazil for the FIFA World Cup, ordered that they stop people who where doing the immunisation. It is evident in the report of H.O.D PHC. They drove away the officials conducting the immunisation. So I had to quickly provide alternative place where these children could be immunised because NULGE shut all the health centres in Isoko South. What baffles me is that the NULGE president is a health worker who knows that when you even declare a strike, health is exempted because it is essential. Yet he ordered that they should shut down because they don’t want immunisation. They want problems to visit Isoko South whereas the government is trying to eradicate polio in Isoko south but I will not allow that to happen.
Do you have any major issue with NULGE before now?
I don’t have any issue with them. The problem I may have had was that they have a stalwart, a former chairman of Isoko South who was very eager to return as the transition committee chairman but was turned down because of security reports. He and others have vowed to see me go down. They recently allegedly connived with some persons, claiming that I and my vice chairman took AK47 riffle and shot at somebody recently. As I talk to you, that case is at the Force C.I.D, Asaba. We went there and submitted ourselves to investigation and today I have being investigated. But the man who made the allegation has refused to show up.
You mentioned sometime ago that local government funds are not meant for ‘sharing’. What prompted that?
Like I said, the former local government chairman always believe that when local government funds come, he should be the one to preside over it, that the governor has asked him to rule the local government by proxy and I said, ‘No, local government fund is not met for sharing’. The governor that I know cannot say you should rule the local government by proxy. So I resisted him by saying no, my allegiance goes to the governor; and he is part of all that is going on.
Don’t you think you may be offending some persons by your stand?
I have looked at Governor Uduaghan from afar. right from when he was commissioner for housing, I have looked at his policies. When he later became secretary to the state government, it became evident to me that he has a lot of things to do in terms of re-positioning Delta State. So it was not surprising to me that he became governor of Delta State. So when he said he was coming out during the PDP primaries, I was a delegate and of course I voted for him. So I know that
God has brought governor Uduaghan to re-position Delta state. You see, we were drifting already. People might call him wicked man and all sorts of names, but I tell you that from seven years back to this present time, all have come to know that God brought him for a purpose and that purpose is to re-position the state.
One thing I know is that as a person, I did not contest any election to be local government chairman; that is one thing you must understand. So it is the magnanimity of His Excellency that he extended his mandate to 24 others and me, and he indeed tasks us to go and focus on peace and security and sanitation. Those are two things in the first place but if you go beyond that then you will key into his three points agenda; and that is what I believe. And I know the governor is somebody who does not condone corruption, who will not say people should do things by proxy and that is exactly what I am saying. So I know with him I am not stepping on toes that are bigger than mine because I feel that things should be done rightly.
What are the other areas you were able to delve into outside of peace, security and sanitation?
When I came into office, the council was owing three months salaries; there was a lot of projects that were not done, either abandoned or not funded. After clearing the salary issue, we went ahead to complete such projects. Even the cassava factory that was opened by the governor was not fully paid for when I came in. We needed to pay some fund to make it up and a lot of papers were not regularised. Our first SURE-P was done elaborately and people benefited.
Considering the dwindling allocation that comes to your council, how do you manage?
I can tell you that we have being making series of sacrifices. Since January, I have not collected imprest to run the office. I have been running the office from whatever I can lay hands on. If you go to my local government in Isoko South, the electricity company has cut us off. We don’t have money to buy diesel to run generators. And I personally fuel my official vehicle. That is how we have been living, because we feel that is the sacrifice we must make. All this is because when you pay salaries, you can no longer pay imprest, not to talk of other services. All monies coming in have been going for salaries. And NULGE are satisfied with it because they want every money to be used for salaries alone.
Can you comment on the call to scrap the local government system of government because it is supposedly a conduit pipe for officials to steal funds?
Well, it depends on how you look at it. Local government system is the third tier of government and the closest to the grassroots. If you scrap it, you are exposing the state government to these people. But again it depends on the funding; what we are having is the present financial situation in Nigeria; crude oil theft and all the lot. But then when you say scrap, how do you scrap and why should you scrap? Now if we plug all conduit pipes that you are talking about for instance, we have identified one of these in our council then the local government will be a beautiful place because it is a beautiful ideal and it takes the shocks. The point is administering the local government the way it ought to be administered.
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