A former gubernatorial candidate in Oyo State, Mr Seyi Makinde, has harped on the need for reform of local government administration for the grassroots to experience real development of their communities.
Makinde, in a press statement, added that the untapped potentials and hidden resources in rural and urban communities could only be unleashed by a progressive local administration system.
Noting the large land mass of Oyo State, he emphasised that an efficient local government system was a sine qua non for sustainable development of the many localities of the state.
He decried the recent hindrance in the conduct of the much-anticipated local government election, which would afford the people of the state the opportunity to have their democratically elected representatives run their local government areas.
According to Makinde, a reform-oriented local government administration will jumpstart the desired development of the state through optimisation of human and natural resources inherent in the state.
The statement read, in parts, “I have long held the view that a major factor for underdevelopment and poverty in Oyo State is progressive local administration system that feeds into the statewide development plan being managed by the state government.”
“The same argument that a president cannot centralise the development ensembles of the country in Abuja holds also for the states, particularly Oyo State. If other states, with relatively smaller land mass, get away with non-functional local administration system, Oyo State, with the largest land mass and second highest population in Southern Nigeria, cannot.”
“In our research, my policy team discovered that our communities are poor not necessarily because of their earning power but because the little they earn is quickly spent on necessities that are priced to deliver values they cannot afford. In essence, for all their labour, they derive less value.”
“This vicious cycle of poverty and underdevelopment, which has locked our people in, is fuelled largely by absence of local alternatives and what experts called Local Multiplier Effect. A simple antidote to this is a progressive local administration system, which will enhance localised solutions, empower the people to manage their own development imperatives, and in turn feed into a state-wide development strategy.”
“While we believe that advocates of autonomy for local governments as the third tier of government in Nigeria are wrong, we are also of the view that our governors have been too unkind to their people by tying local administrations to their apron strings and Oyo State appears to be worse-off.”