Development beyond road construction

I like to commend the Oyo State government for embarking on road construction in local government and newly created local council development areas in the state. Commissioner for works, Bimbo Kolade, revealed this to the public through an interview he granted national dailies.

One objection I have to the commissioner’s statement is that he did not clarify which tier is constructing the roads. Is it the state or local government? Obviously, one cannot fault him because local government has been rendered prostrate by almighty governors. The allocations coming from the federation account are being spent on local government behalf by the governors. Gone are the days when local government prioritized its developmental effort.

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Today, the governments both state and local government are concentrated in the capital and governors and embodiment of the state and the local government. This is highly unfortunate because one person determines what is good for over five million people in the state. The roads being constructed are forced down the thrust of the government agencies and LCDAs without a hoof. There is no doubt that Ajimobi government has impacted Oyo in terms of construction of quality roads. Nonetheless, I want to say it categorically that development is beyond road construction. Development in the real sense of the word is increase in the productive capacity of a nation or people.  In this wise, what can help people in quests of development is technology. It is when the productive capacity of people is high that they will produce excessively to meet local demands and for exportation to earn foreign exchange for further production. It is when funds are available that government can embark on a provision of infrastructure, security and so on and so forth. It is clear to me that development meant something else to some of our leaders in Nigeria. Coming to their level, their development efforts should be prioritized as the needs of each local government differs from another. In some local governments, particularly rural ones, water, electricity and roads may be their needs, in urban local governments, their needs are beyond road construction.

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Some of the needs of the people in Ogbomoso North Local Government include adequate security which Ajimobi has provided through operation burst in conjunction with the men of the Nigeria Police and National Security and Civil Defense Corps etc. Other needs include pipe borne water, stable electricity supply, neighbourhood markets, channelization of streams, well-equipped health centres, refuse disposal mechanism because streams road side drainage, uncompleted building etc have been turned to dumping sites. Street lighting and maintenance of the existing primary schools building and not a construction of old ones when a new one is disused and payment of workers salary are not paid as at when due etc.

• Folaranmi Adegbite