Nimba comms. demand seats in County Sitting

The hearty-spoken commissioner of Sanniquellie Mah District, Gabriel Gbanlon, wants the Nimba Legislative Caucus to consider the inclusion of the 17 district commissioners of the province on the list of delegates to the County Council Sittings.

The commissioner’s plead came last Thursday at a dialogue between the Legislative Caucus and the County Administration organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the Tubman Hall in Sanniquellie.

Commissioner Gbanlon said, it sounds unorganized, if commissioners, who hold the fabric of rural administration and implementation of local government projects are left out of the economic decision of the region.

About two sittings up to current, the Nimba Legislative Caucus which has the authority under the budget laws to draw delegates to the forum had mandated the superintendent of Nimba to exclude all 17 administrative districts, thereby making them mere observers at those sittings.

Expressing his dissatisfaction over the application of the county social development fund at the Ministry of Internal Affairs initiated dialogue which covered local government Acts in Sanniquellie, Gbanlon said, such step by the Nimba lawmakers simply does not only ridicule them to local citizens, but also imposes doubts in the synchronized down-upward trend which is the best practice in the implementation of the local fund.

He said before the county council sitting, the citizens had mandated through a district called meeting what their developmental priorities are, adding “If for any reason those priorities are not captured by the sittings, we commissioners are blamed for twisting the interest of the locals.”

Gbanlon said those deviations of local interest are common, as each year commissioners are omitted from the list of delegates. “We do not plan to antagonize legislative policy, but the commissioner council thinks that, it’s prudent for implementers of policy to consider the best interests of the major end users. This means, the need for commissioners to attend the forum as delegate is closure to the development agenda of our County and should not be ignored for any maneuvering reasons.”

Commissioner Gbanlon who is also spokesperson for the Nimba Commissioner Council, wants Nimba Lawmaker to reconsider their decision in the next county council sitting.But reacting to the call, Representative Larry P. Younquoi of Nimba’s Electoral District-8 said, recommending and drawing of delegates to the Council sitting remains the legal rights of the Caucus in accordance with Article 9 of the budget law of Liberia, adding “those authorizations are left to the will of the caucus and not to be manipulated.

The lawmaker however, promised that he will plead with his colleagues to consider inclusion of the commissioners in the next sitting.

Editing by Jonathan Browne