The Minister of Local Government, over the weekend, urged the newly elected local councilors to be agents of change and work to improve service delivery in their communities.

The Minister reminded them that while they are accountable to Government, which provides most of the resources, they are also accountable to the electorate.
There has been a tendency by leaders to think that they are doing the people a favor, whenever approached for a particular service.

Leaders need to understand that the positions they hold carry along the responsibility to improve the lives of the people they are in charge of.

The reasons why they are referred to as leaders, is because they have been selected to take the lead role in guiding the people towards prosperity.

Instead, you find situations, where policies such as eradication of thatched houses, land consolidation, classrooms constructions, health insurance coverage, and savings schemes, are excelling in one area, and lagging in another.

The areas that perform well have leaders who understand their responsibility and act accordingly. For those that lag behind, the leaders should measure up, or let others do the job. Many of these issues are critical to development and if poorly delivered, everyone gets to lose.

The public too, should make it their business to criticize and condemn bad service from their leaders. If leaders are not delivering, and the public does nothing about it, when they are aware, then they too become accomplices to poor service.

Let us not sit back whenever things are not going in the right direction. Everyone has a share of responsibility in improving service delivery.

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