The president of the local government area of southwest Ibadan, Hon. Kehinde Akande, is a head of the second -term local government, and marks the first year of his second term today. In this interview with Yinka Oladayinbo, he talks about the administration of local government in the country, a solution to the third level of crisis government, among other issues. Extracts:
How would you describe the last five years that you have been the president of the local government area of southwest Ibadan?
First, I will thank the Almighty Allah for saving our lives until today and making us tell what we have been able to do, my thanks to all political leaders in the local government of southwest Ibadan in particular in particular and all political leaders in the state of Oyo in general, led by our friendly governor, Eng Seyi Makinde who considered that someone like me could be chosed to this local government. As we all know in our political system in Nigeria, it has not been easy, before assuming a position if you have what you want to do as a game plan, it will be easier for you to achieve and I think that the game plan we had before entering this seat has helped us to get where we are today.
For many people, the local government as a government level has not really had the expectation, what is its reaction to this statement?
Speaking about the third level of government, we all know in our Constitution that the federal government, the State and the premises exists, but when we talk about the functionality of the local government depends on which angle we are seeing it. If you are looking at it from the way in which Governor Seyi Makinde is carrying out the state business, which has made people praise him, then he will see that joining resources for development is even essential for him and this is what has been happening. If we observe some cases, some roads in the local government and observing what is needed to repair a road on any street now, it meets billions of Naira, regardless of the assignment of a local government that is having that it is not feasible that this local government does, except to join resources to ensure that we have a viable and sustainable community. So, if we are talking about having the third level of government, that is what the Constitution says, but not only to have a third level of government that will not work, but if you design a means and a way in which you could unite resources for development purposes, I think that is what the governor has been doing.
The Supreme Court Judgment on the autonomy of the local government spoke almost a year ago, but it has not yet been implemented, what do you think is the exit of the quagmire?
When we talk about the autonomy of the local government, we must have one thing in mind, all we want is development, all we want is that our community is viable, any way of achieving it, the final result, which is development, is what is essential for all citizens of the local government, wise to security. The Federal Government came to the Supreme Court for the autonomy of the local government, people blamed the State, but we are not looking at the Federal Government itself, what have they done to update what the Supreme Court judgment said? Secondly, what Governor Seyi Makinde tells the Federal Government is that there are more important issues that should be addressed, not only giving alone autonomy. Is this the way in which the country's government is supposed to be executed? There are many things that are not well. An example is this, the state of Oyo is one of the largest states in terms of land and population mass, we have 33 areas of the local government in the state of Oyo, there are states that are not even half of the State and we almost have the same local governments and you want to base give money to these local governments on that. If you go to the South-South zone where we have oil wells and desire money, but what about other mineral resources in other states? There are many mineral resources in the state of hearing that the federal government is not taking advantage of the benefit of people. Another is the VAT problem, looks at what the state of Lagos, the state of Oyo, the state of Ogun are generating as VAT, what percentage of that money is taken to the United States? If we juxtapose it and look at the Our Government is saying that we Should not put the cart Before the horses, let us sit down and work out a Modality That Will Look Even and Be Just To Everybody, That is What He is saying, He is not saying that local Government Should not be able to stop alone.
How do you think we can solve this problem?
One of the ways I can think now is that we come to a round table, look for shapes and modality to solve all these problems. Look at insecurity in the country, for example, there are some local governments that are not working due to insecurity, in the state of Oyo, look at how much and the efforts that the governor is putting to ensure that the State is one of the guaranteed states of the country. There are many things behind the issue of insecurity, apart from hunger, whose insecurity is what brought it and poverty, so I believe that the path to follow for us in Nigeria is that all of us, regardless of the tribe or religion, meet with the maximum good faith, with all sincerity, then we can assign an advance for the country.
Are you now suggesting a political solution to this issue instead of the legal solution sought by the federal government?
We need more political solution than simply legal, going to the Court requesting the implementation of the sentence. Even many of our courts are now being politically motivated. Do we have the independence of the Judiciary? Because if you look most of the cases now in court, if you belong to a particular political party and have a case in court, you are sure to win it and that should not be the case. Is it the egg before the chicken, or the chicken before the egg? So I think that the political solution is the way to follow and it is through this that we can begin to write the Constitution the way to advance to the country.
How could it be able to impact the life of the local government of the southwest of Ibadan in recent more than five years?
God has allowed me the ability, courage and support of the good people of Ibadan South-West to present themselves as president, we have a plan because we prepare ourselves not to fail and that is why we are not failing. We know what our communities need, we know what we need to prioritize and what came first in my list was security and so that God is the glory that our local government, in terms of security, we are there. We know that with adequate security in the community, development will continue. We are also investigating the development of our area with the provision of medical care, with small resources and the support of the State, we can ensure that our health facilities work perfectly. We know how restless young people could be if they have nothing to do, we have produced training centers such as the ability acquisition center for them, we can boast of having three functional vocational skills centers in our local government and this has greatly reduced the concern of young people and has given them hope for a better tomorrow. We look at the people we can consider how not to do it well economically in society and develop empowerment programs and, as we empower young people, we also empower adults, even retirees to ensure that they can put food on their tables and have done it in many ways. We have also played an important role in the development of our schools to ensure that our children obtain the best education, last year we had training classes for students in the Council, so that during the holidays they do not have to be wandering through the streets and I am very happy to say that it has been something that other local governments were copying us. We can boast to send more than 20 students from this local government to Polytechnic, we gave them a scholarship and we are looking at schools under our jurisdiction to ensure that they have a conducive learning environment. We know that we cannot do this alone, that's why we call some philanthropists in our local government and have been coming to our aid. We do not stop only in education, we enter our communities where they need wells, public bathrooms, transformers that we have been providing. There is a particular party member and a community leader who donated wells for the community, so we are not sitting to regret that we do not have enough resources, it does not have to be the physical cash alone, going out to spread the tentacles of the good things for the community and go out to achieve and the local government of the southwest of Ibadan is very blessed with the human resources that we are taking advantage of the development of our community.
How do you select the beneficiaries of the programs he claimed to have presented for people? Party -based lines or other affiliations?
All our development advances in the local government have never touched the line of the party because we believe that the government is for all, regardless of which political party belongs. Talking about the students we send to Polytechnic and all these technical schools. Initially, we were looking at 20 people, but more than 150 were qualified before being able to choose the 20, which is something we are trying to do within our limited resources.
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