I congratulate the newly declared Chairmen of the 17 Local Government Areas of Enugu State and the Councillors across our 260 electoral wards following the September 26, 2026 local government exercise conducted by the Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission (ENSIEC).
ENSIEC has declared candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winners of all 17 chairmanship positions and all 260 councillorship seats. While the Commission maintains that the exercise was free and fair, I recognise that the outcome will raise serious questions among many members of the opposition and citizens concerned about the credibility, competitiveness and independence of local government elections.
As an opposition governorship candidate, I have profound reservations about a political system in which the ruling party repeatedly emerges with virtually every available local government position. Democracy should be built upon genuine competition, credible elections and the freedom of the electorate to determine who governs them. When one political party controls the machinery of state and subsequently emerges with every chairmanship and councillorship position, questions about the strength and credibility of our democratic institutions are inevitable.
Nevertheless, my message today is not primarily about political parties. It is about the people of Enugu State.
Whatever disagreements may exist about the process through which the newly declared council leaders emerged, they have now been entrusted with public responsibilities. That responsibility must be treated as a sacred duty to the people rather than an opportunity to reward political loyalty.
To every newly declared Chairman and Councillor, I say this: your greatest responsibility must now be to the people you have been called to serve.
You may owe political gratitude to those who supported your emergence, but public office imposes a much greater obligation. The resources entrusted to local governments belong to the people, not to any governor, political party, political godfather or individual officeholder.
Local government is the level of government closest to our communities. It should be where citizens experience governance directly through functioning primary healthcare centres, quality basic education, clean communities, accessible rural roads, markets, sanitation, community security initiatives, youth empowerment, support for local businesses and opportunities that improve household livelihoods.
Our people are facing serious economic pressures. Many families are struggling with the cost of living. Young people are searching for meaningful opportunities. Traders and small businesses need an enabling environment to survive and grow. Rural communities need roads, healthcare, water and economic opportunities.
These are the challenges that should occupy the minds of our council leaders from their first day in office.
Your success should not be measured by how effectively you remain answerable to those who facilitated your political emergence. It should be measured by how effectively you remain accountable to the people whose resources you administer and whose communities you have been entrusted to lead.
This is where leadership must rise above politics.
Even those of us who fundamentally question the credibility of the process should still hope that those who have been declared winners succeed in improving the lives of our people. If a council chairman builds good roads, improves healthcare, creates opportunities for young people and manages public resources transparently, the beneficiaries will not be only APC members. They will be Ndi Enugu.
That is why I urge the new council leadership across the state to resist becoming extensions of political interests. Local governments must not simply exist to mobilise votes for 2027 or satisfy those at the top of the political structure. They must function as genuine engines of grassroots development.
Enugu needs local leaders with the courage to listen to their communities, manage resources responsibly and place public interest above political patronage.
I therefore congratulate all those declared elected and wish them well in the enormous responsibility ahead.
Where the electoral process has produced disagreement, there are democratic and legal avenues through which such concerns can be pursued. But while those debates continue, governance cannot stop and our communities cannot wait.
The people must come first.
Ultimately, history will not remember how close you were to the Governor or how powerful your political sponsors were. History will remember whether the communities entrusted to you became better because you served.
Serve the people. Be accountable to the people. Deliver development to the people.
That should be the true purpose of local government and the standard by which every public officeholder should be judged.
