ONDO State Governor Olusegun Mimiko has identified "corruption, maladministration, ineptitude, redundancy, lack of transparency and accountability" as "challenges that have largely made the third-tier of government almost irrelevant in the scheme of things".

He also lamented that administrators at the third-tier of government have not effectively connected with the needs, aspirations and yearnings of the grassroots' population in the country.

Mimiko spoke yesterday at the start of a four-day retreat organised by the Office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) for political office holders and top bureaucrats at the council level.

He stressed that "the attendant consequences of the abysmal lack of responsive leadership are also not difficult to observe: broken infrastructure, growing disdain for government by our people, aggravated levels of poverty and disease and untold hardships in our communities, towns and villages."

The governor, however, pledged that the system was on the verge of being changed for the better in Ondo State with the emplacement of an efficient government at the state level.

He told his audience of over 300 participants from the state's 18 local councils that "in the emerging renaissance, council administrators should key in into all the developmental dreams of the state government so that the best could be achieved for the population".

He also urged them "to desist from every act or action which may be at variance with the ethos of responsive governance. You must eschew ineptitude and graft and you must continue to discharge your duties with single-mindedness knowing well that power is transient and it derives its essence from the precious social capital invested by the people."

Warning that the full weight of the law would be brought on corrupt officials, Mimiko stressed: "Our administration has zero-tolerance for corruption and we will not hesitate to apply all necessary sanctions on any local council chairman or official found wanting."

The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Oye Alademehin, said: "With a galaxy of impediments conspiring to prevent our local councils from getting the desired results of delivering the dividend of democracy to the generality of our people, we need to move back from the brink.

"This informed a retreat of this magnitude packaged by the state government for all of us stakeholders in collaboration with our highly treasured resource persons to brainstorm on how to unlock these myriads of problems facing the local council system in our dear state and lay the foundation for a result-oriented management of local councils to achieve the public interest."

The SSG, Aderotimi Adelola, who anchored the retreat, said such programmes were needed from time to time to examine problems being encountered in council administrations and proffer solutions to them.