Encomium
THURSDAY, May 15, 2014, was another day in history for Agbado/Oke Odo Local Council Development Area as new exco members to man the affairs of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the area were sworn in at the Ajala/Ijaiye headquarters of the party. Dignitaries and stakeholders were fully on ground to witness the memorable event. The ceremony was highlighted with the Oath of Allegiance and Office taken by the new executives.
Among those sworn in were Prince Jonathan Aladeloba, Mr. Y. O. Azeez, Mr. Kasali Akanmu, Pastor S. O. Titiloye (Youth Leader), Mr. A. Adeola (Asst. Youth Leader), Mrs. Grace Ade (Women Leader), Mrs. E. Lapite (Asst. Women Leader), Mrs. Sola Olorungbebe, Mr. Musibau Ogungbola, Hon. Tifase, Mr. Agunloye Idowu and others. The LCDA party chairman, Comrade Segun Shodiya laid emphasis on positive change and encouraged the new executive members to believe in the party in their various wards. He said no caucus should be established in whatever form by anyone.
Some of the party chieftains that graced the occasion were Hon. (Prince) Bisi Yusuf of the House of Representatives, Chief Livinus Okpara, Alhaji Ayilara, Engr. Famuyiwa, Isaac Omoregbe, Alhaji (Engr.) Olawale Cole (Olojota of Ojota), who told the new executives to work on reconciling with aggrieved members of the party.
Hon. Bisi Yusuf who started as defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) secretary in Alimosho local government told the party faithful to consider party leaders who have laboured for the party and continue to be steadfast and reliable. He also shared his winning formula with them so as to shore up the winning spirit and for them to administer it to win more members for the party.
ENCOMIUM Weekly cornered the LCDA chairman, Dr. Augustine Arogundade who spoke to us on his challenges and achievements…
Can you please tell us your background?
I am a doctor of academics. I was once a lecturer in University of Lagos, Industrial Relations and Personnel Management. My first degree is in Medical Psychology from the University of Ibadan, I was student union leader and activist there. I was in the forefront in the Ali-must-go era. Even when I was doing my post graduate programme in UNILAG, I was the class leader. After this I joined Rauf Aregbesola who is also a comrade in the comradeship drive. The implication of that is service to humanity and not to self. So, most of my activities is serving the people.
Presently at the Confab, there is the issue of local government autonomy. Some are saying they don’t think it is desirable. Considering the fact that when you talk about the three tiers of government, the local government is supposed to be the closest to the people. What exactly is your opinion about this?
It depends on the definitional approach, people who are talking. In everything we are talking about, it depends on the way you look at it critically and keenly. Every rational person would be looking at autonomy. I remember when Nigeria was under the colonial rule, everybody wants to get independence but the problem is whether it is better or not is another thing entirely. Now, we got independence for the past 50 years or so, I now ask the question, are Nigerians better off? We believe we need to crawl. When we are looking at our constitution, we’ve to look at it critically – are we practising true federalism or what? If by now if the federal government still has control over the affairs of the local government, then there is problem. Even in British government where Nigeria started from, the colonial leaders, we are talking about either the national government or regional government. The local governments are clearly at the regional level. But if we are talking about the state government, American system, you are talking about the state and local government. You can’t be talking about the federal government and local government. The federal government has no business in the local government, it is the state.
The argument now is when you talk about autonomy, what does it connote? Does that autonomy connote that the federal government should be relating directly with the local government bypassing the state, realizing that we have federal, state and local? In a situation where you have federal, state and local, you should allow the state to relate more with the local government. No government can be independent, totally autonomous. No. But in terms of certain things, like the allocation we are talking about, we have critical problem. Our economy that is highly dependent on oil which the federal government is the big brother, sharing it to all the tiers of government. Even taking the lion share bigger than the state and local government. So, if we want the local government to really operate fully, allocation must be made to the state. For example, let me tell you, look at the dichotomy that happened between the north and south in terms of even the local government, Agbado/Oke Odo alone which the federal government is saying cannot be a local government, an LCDA, an area office, is more than some local governments in the north and we are in the same Nigeria. We are even more than some states in the north. So, how then are you talking about autonomy? Is it autonomy we are talking now or creating a justifiable equitable society for Nigeria?
If Nigeria wants to be one, the first thing is to create a parameter by which each state can create local government. If you say any population or any community that has about 5,000 people should be a local government, that is the yardstick for all Nigerians should follow. We must have a yardstick. Some people because of the long military rule that has favoured the northern boys, so they now decided to take everything on their area making the southerners to suffer a lot of tribulation because we have the same cake that we are all sharing from. That is the problem. When they are now talking about autonomy, that is not the issue. The issue is that we should practice true federalism where equality, egalitarian society strive. If are talking about true Nigeria, how can we have Alimosho. Alimosho is more or less equal to Ghana in population which is a whole country, and you are saying it is one local government here.
Look at Kano in 1963 census, check the records. Kano had about five million population, Lagos had 5.5 million population. Today, Kano has created about two other states Jigawa and others, Lagos still remains one. Even if you look at the local governments in Kano alone, about seventy something, Lagos has 20 local governments. Are we talking Nigerian, are we on the same page? We need to first of all define a true Nigeria. Autonomy or no autonomy is secondary. The state should be giving freedom to create the local governments it desires based on population, based on yardstick which is general for use in the federation. When you see a place like Jigawa that is not up to Alimosho claiming to have 40 something local governments, are we on the same page? That is why the Confab is there for people to sit down, let us analyse it, look at it keenly and let us be truthful and fair to ourselves if we want Nigeria to continue to be one.
From your own experience, what are the challenges of administering a local government?
If you look at my analysis, you would see that the challenges are from the federal government. The problem we have is funding, the distribution of the national income. If we believe that the local government is the grassroot government, that they are there to serve the people and make sure that there is no poverty in the land, then the revenue to local government should be given a higher priority. For example, I listened to the President sometime ago when he was criticizing the foreign economic experts who said Nigeria is one of the poorest countries in the world. But Jonathan said no, Nigeria is one of the richest, but that the only problem we have is that the economy of Nigeria is in the hands of a few people. If the economy of Nigeria is in the hands of three per cent of Nigerians and 97 per cent of Nigerians are poor. Are we not poor? What we are saying is that the economy of Nigeria has not been probably distributed and that is what is creating problem for the local government.
The problems of the local government is more than the state and even the federal. Even the federal roads, the people don’t even know who is federal person. All they know is that there is potholes, there is problem here and there. They call the council to come and look at it and the council will have to come so that the community will not continue to criticize them.
The challenges there is that there must be devolution of power down the line and national income is allocated based on the need of the people. There must be equitable distribution of even wealth, so poverty will not be as high as it is now in Nigeria.
Can you please emphasize on your achievements in the last one year as the chairman of Agbado/Oke Odo LCDA?
That is a beautiful question because if we are talking about the achievements of this administration, it has been marvelous. Look at it as transformational because we met the local government more or less in shambles. The Meiran Road, Ajasa Road were all cut off from traffic. If you know Ajasa Road what it looked like, the DPO had to station men there 24 hours to make sure vehicles don’t fall into the deep tunnel there. Today, we have given the place a face-lift. We have given a facelift to about 13 schools. Apart from that, we have done construction of many roads. If you go to Aje Street, we have done a lot there. Even Abeokuta Street in Pleasure, we have put asphalt on the road.
In the history of Agbado/Oke Odo LCDA, the transformation we have done people have seen it as magical. People have been asking what the magic is, but it is from the training I got from Rauf Aregbesola, the governor of Osun State because I was formerly his Personal Assistant. He taught me how to work without money and that is exactly what I have used to transform this place. We are working everywhere in Agbado/Oke Odo. That is why we call it transformational.
Your local government has not leant its voice to the issue of the abduction of the Chibok girls…
We have done that. On Tuesday, May 13, 2014, our women went to Ikeja for a rally. We started our rally from here to the Police College. We trekked from Police College to Alausa. We did our rally in support of the release of the girls.
– OLUBUKOLA OJO
