The Minister of Local Government and Community Affairs Amb Tamba Lamina has taught final year students offering National Affairs Reporting at the Mass Communications Department at Fourah Bah College about the state of Local Government since he took over as Minister and explained why the 2004 Local Government Act was amended.
In his lecture, Amb. Lamina briefly explained the mandates of the Ministry where he said it supervises 22 Local Councils and 190 Chiefdoms. He maintained that Local Government has made a huge progress under his leadership and by extension the New Direction Government of President Julius Maada Bio.
He talked about the various strides his Ministry has taken to restore dignity in Chieftaincy including increments of their monthly salaries and their involvement in state governance.
He also explained the processes involved in successfully conducting 41 Paramount Chieftaincy Elections across the country and resolving conflicts between 4 Paramount Chiefs and their subjects including Bagruwa Penguia, Futa Pejeh and Lower Banta where the Paramount Chief is set to be returned at any moment from now.
He further talked about other achievements of his Ministry including the review of the Decentralization Policy, which was launched by Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh in 2019 and the amendment of the 2004 Local Government Act.
Explaining the reasons why the 2004 Local Government Act was amended, Amb. Lamina stated that in the spirit of meeting the manifesto commitments of President Bio and the effort to deepen decentralization, the 2004 Local Government Act was viewed as one that was no longer meeting the felt need of local governance as there were inconsistencies and absurdities which required clarity with a view to embracing current development.
He later focused his lecture on clearly pointing out the different changes that were made in the new Act with in-depth explanation of their importance to local governance and decentralization.
The lectures ended with a question and answer session which also helped to address and further enabled the student to understand other aspects contained in the new Act. The students later expressed gratitude to the Minister and his entourage including the Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission in a vote of thanks.
