‘LG autonomy will expose govs’ incompetence, unproductiveness’

The governorship candidate of the Accord Party in Oyo State in the 2019 General election, Ajadi Adegboyega Ajadi, has said that the financial autonomy granted to local governments will expose the incompetence and unproductiveness of state governors in the country.

Ajadi made the remark at a press conference held on the state of the economy tagged, patriotism: the success and the development of Nigeria” in Lagos on Wednesday.

Commending the Supreme Court verdict, he said the judgment is long overdue as it would put the governors on their toes.

The Supreme Court had affirmed the financial autonomy of Nigeria’s 774 local governments. The apex court unanimously upheld the suit brought by the Federal Government to strengthen the independence of local governments in the country.

He however commend President Bola Tinubu and the Supreme Court on the verdict.

He said, “The pronouncement of the Supreme Court on the local government autonomy is long overdue. The autonomy is going to unearth the incompetence and the unproductiveness of some State governors. If you are not competent, you cannot be successful as a governor in Nigeria with the autonomous local governments.

What this means is that they are telling you to put on your thinking cap. This is an intellectual revolution. The governors cannot be waiting for the monthly FG allocation. This means they are not competent. A governor must have plans for his state. All the states that are agro-allied must go back to work. We need to help Nigeria to grow. How do we do this? It is by being patriotic. We also need to invest in farming to address the food scarcity we are currently facing.”

ALSO READ: Hardship: Don’t bring protest to South-East, Ohanaeze youths warn organisers

Speaking on the lingering wage issue between the FG and organised labour, he said having a uniform wage for workers across the state isn’t possible.

According to him, “It is important to note that we have been on the issue of wage increase for so long. The NLC/TUC have to understand what they want and what is available. All states cannot pay the same minimum wage but they can pay increased wage because they don’t earn the same income. Some states have strategic advantage over others.

Some of the states don’t have avenues for additional revenue apart from the allocation from the Federal Government. So the labour union leaders have to consider this too.”

While tasking Nigerian youths on nation-building, he urges them to channel their energy towards positivity and embrace intellectual revolution and shun violent and destructive protest.

He stated, “I urge our youths to support the government and be productive, especially at this time in our national life. You must not go the Biafra way. We must stay united and not fight. Indeed the country is at a crossroads over the rising cost of living and the inflation it is plunged into. The administration of President Bola Tinubu came at a time when the economy of the country is in comatose because the previous administrations had borrowed so much money.

The removal of fuel subsidy was an imperative measure to arrest the near-collapse economy and stop the haemorrhage of the nation. At that time, previous government had no budget for subsidy in the 2023 budget. All these measures have implications on the economy and it is no doubt responsible for the hardship Nigerians are currently facing in terms of inflation and high cost of food items.

As a patriotic Nigeria and a member of the opposition party, I strongly believe this is the time to open our eyes to the reality of our situation as the challenges we are confronting today was inherited over 20 years ago.”

To address the food inflation and scarcity, he called on the federal government to establish price monitoring structure just as he identified traders as being behind the rising cost of food items.

He added, “Everybody trading today is a part of the problem we are facing. Recently, I visited some major markets in Lagos, Oyo and elsewhere to monitor prices of food items. It was discovered that there is nobody monitoring pricing in Nigeria. It is now we are trying to put square peg in square holes. It was never like this.

Growing up in Nigeria, you cannot grow tomatoes and just increase its price all because the price of dollar increases. You will be arrested and jailed. But there is no such monitoring anymore. So we need pricing structure. I am here today because of Nigerians not because of the government because we can change the government with our attitudes. We must love ourselves before Nigeria can develop and change for the better.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE