Mr Adewale Adekoya, is the chairman of the caretaker committee of Oye Local Government Area of Ekiti State and the Secretary of Association of Local Governments (ALGON) in the state. He speaks on the challenges of the office with Sam Nwaoko.What are the challengeswhen you came in andhow have you been coping with them'We had to move round the council area for us to identify those areas the people need the government to intervene for them. It has been God who has been helping us, coupled with the experience I had garnered working in a bank for seven years. I was deputising for the legal officer of the bank at the regional office at Ibadan. It was quite hectic and being able to coordinate such office then and add to the fact that I am also a lawyer who handles clients, I can say that I had been prepared for this job as the chairman of the local government area.However, to pin down a major challenge confronting the council administration, I will say it is fmance. I say this because the demands of the people are so high and they don't want to believe that the local government cannot do everything for them in terms of providing money. They want to come here and get their problems solved automatically. It has been a major challenge.How are the departments in the council faring'I start with Works Department, which I refer to as the heartbeat of the council. I will say in this area, we have impacted on our people in the respective corrtmunities. We have completed the Aiyegbaju Skill Acquisition Centre; the health centre work is going on at Orisumbare; three projects are ongoing at Isan and we have work going on in Ilupeju, Ire and other communities in the local government area.In terms of education, the second month we came in, we sponsored 60 indigent students from the local government area for the November/December GCE. Now we want to provide First Aid boxes for all the 64 primary schools in the local government aera. Before the middle of next month, this would have been completed and distributed to the schools.In the health sector, we have procured an electricity generating set for the health centre at Orisumbare and we just procured drug for the centre. We are just waiting for the strike by the health workers to end so that activities can resume fully in those centres.And how has the strike affected your council in that regard'I don't think it has delayed work at the local government area because the strike is a general thing. Secondly, they had carried out most of their routine immunisation before they went on strike and there has not been another immunisation day since then. However, as we have it on good authority, they would suspend the strike very soon. It has not really affected us. We are moving on and God has been helping us. Also in the health sector, we have made approval for the purchase of two ultra-sound scanning machines which would be fixed at the two health centres. We also have purchased lawn mowers for the health centres so as to keep the environment clean. The chairperson of the local government has also organised seminars on rape and issues in sexual harassment to sensitise the women and the youth and we have people who attended from the 12 wards that make up the local government area. There were five participants per ward. That same day, a five-man per ward action committee was set up to sensitise the people on their rights and what they are entitled to when they are abused.We just procured 1,000 hectares of land at Omu for mechanised farming. Portions of land would be allocated to the youth who would have been trained for them to know what is expected of them. Thereafter, they would be given soft loans to commence. We also expect that later, the farm would be made residential; a form of farm settlement. But for now, the farmers would be going from their respective homes.The state government gave council chairmen a directive to construct five kilometres of road in your respective local government areas. How far have you gone with this'We sought the opinion of the leaders and people of the local government area to be able to arrive at the choice of the road. We had to involve even the traditional rulers because it was not easy choosing a five-kilometre road in a local government area made up of about 16 communities. Eventually we have been able to come up with something and our decision has been communicated to the Ministry of Local Government and work on the road would soon commence. What is delaying us now is the rain and as soon as the rain stops, the flag-off would take place and we hope it would be in this senatorial district. We have already set money aside for the project. So, funds will not be a problem.Advise for the people on the issue of local government autonomy and state interference in the affairs of council'The proposal for autonomy for the local government areas is a good one from the Presidency. If the Presidency can pursue it to the letter, it will assist the councils to achieve more and help the administration to perform its functions better. The major problem confronting local government today is that of finance and control and interference from the state. Yes, control is good, but there should be a limit to it on the part of the state government. If the autonomy is given, there is another way the state would be involved by way of checking the excesses of the local government administrators. All these are expected to be in the amendment of the constitution, because if the constitution is not amended, all the talk about autonomy for the councils would be just on paper. So, even as the amendment is going on, they should be thinking of how to ensure the control of the local governments.Another issue the constitution amendment must take care of is how to empower the council chairmen. For instance, the limit of the money the local government chairman can approve is just N500,000. Sometimes, we have some important issues that would amount to one million naira or just above N500,000 and we cannot approve. So they should empower the Finance and General Purpose Committee; give them some approval that amount to, say Nl.5million. They should be able to give such approvals and thereby enable the chairman to commence projects to further assist the local government in meeting the needs of the people.The local government is really close to the people because it would be unwise for the people to travel all the way to the state capital when they need to pay certain levies. We have been able to meet some of their challenges but their expectations are so high. Our people must know that we cannot meet all their personal challenges, but those we can, we assure them that we would do our best for them. So, we urge them to be patient and support the government at all levels and they will enjoy dividends of democracy the more from our government.With the high expectations, would you agree that the people are missing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) coupled with the allegation by the PDP that the ACN government has not performed well in the last one year'In the last one year of the ACN administration in Ekiti State, the state has witnessed peace. The state has been very peaceful. Having fought for so long in the courts, the current government is facing the challenge of giving Ekiti a rebirth, a new identity and that is why the expectation of the populace is very high. The people believe that as soon as the current administration came in things would change for good and all their challenges would be met. People were fed up with the style of administration of the PDP and we all have seen that the Kayode Fayemi administration is peaceful; it is transparent and quite different. The ACN administration in the state has been doing a very wonderful job. I am not saying this because I am one 9f them, but because I know the ideals of the ACN and what the government stands from. When you look at the eight-point agenda, you will see that the people are really enjoying the programme and that is how it should be.
Click here to read full news..
