LG election: ‘Ajimobi’s good programmes’ll make APC win all 33 LGs’

The caretaker chairman of Oorelope Local Government, Hon. Samuel Okunlade, in this interview with MOSES ALAO, speaks on the forthcoming local government elections in the state, the performance of Governor Abiola Ajimobi and how it will affect the chances of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

AFTER over six years in office, it appears Governor Abiola Ajimobi is about to conduct the local government elections. What do you think are the chances of your party, the All Progressives Congress (APC)?

People often make that mistake of putting blames at the doorstep of the governor for not conducting the local government election, forgetting that there had always been one legal tussle or the other preventing the exercise from taking place. If you are a law-abiding person like our governor, who at one time was a senator and part of the lawmaking process, you would not bully your ways and conduct the local government election or any other process when the court says you should not. And for those who are not mischievous like the opposition politicians in the state always are, they would know that it was only two weeks ago that one could say that the legal hurdles were done away with. So, that it took six years to conduct election into local governments was not the governor’s fault.

But people continue to blame him, citing the example of how previous governments conduct elections into local councils regularly.

Did the previous governments have restraining orders and one legal process after another stopping the conduct of local government elections? In fact, one of the court cases that prevented the government from conducting election arose from the actions of the previous government. Everyone also saw that the state government was determined to conduct the poll in February 2017 before another legal action scuttled it, so blaming the governor is kind of mischievous.

Now, on the chances of our party, the APC no longer has any challenger in Oyo State today. The opposition parties, by whatever name they go, are losing members to the APC on a daily basis, because the people of the state have seen the good policies and transformational leadership of the governor. So, I can boldly tell you that APC will win elections in all local governments, because Governor Ajimobi’s good works will campaign for the party.

But some people rue the missed opportunities at developing the grassroots in the last six years, saying the unconstitutional style of appointing caretaker chairmen has deprived the local governments of development. What do you think?

Well, so what reasonable alternative would those people have suggested to the governor when one court case after another continued to restrain the state government from conducting local government election? Let us be truthful with ourselves, the fact that caretaker chairmen are appointed does not mean there is no development at the local governments. The question you should ask, or let me say that the question people should ask is, how well are those appointed as caretaker committee members serving their people? Whether you are an elected chairman or a caretaker chairman, it is a call to serve and if you heed the call and you discharge your duties creditably, then people at the grassroots will feel the impact of government.

Would you say you have been discharging your duties creditably?

I will say yes. As the caretaker chairman of Oorelope Local Government, the first thing I did was to take stock of the challenges facing my people and I can tell you that today, we have are putting in place policies and programmes to overcome those challenges. For instance, I know that water scarcity is a serious challenge for the people during the dry season and to address that, we are repairing all boreholes in the local government. I also know that agriculture is the major business of the people and to ensure the ease of doing the business, we have graded roads leading to farming areas and villages, which the government cannot afford to tar with asphalt for now.

Equally, the Owode Market has been a major source of income for the people of the local government and it is also a source of revenue generation for the local government and we are now in the process of renovating the market. So, I will say that I have been doing my best.