No! Gov Makinde, your LG model cripples grassroots devpt, can't be adopted

No! Gov Makinde, your LG model cripples grassroots devpt, can’t be adopted

Ben GEORGE

Gleefully, Oyo state governor Engr Seyi Makinde declared while speaking at the 2026 budget presentation held earlier this week in the hallowed chamber of the Oyo State House of Assembly that his model of local government administration was the best and expressed desire it would be adopted by other states.

According to him the model ignites growth and development and prudent management of local government funds. The governor was excited enunciating the gains of the model. This his model embodies the state government managing the funds both from the federal allocation and council IGR, determining how it is disbursed, what projects to execute irrespective of local needs. It negates the principle of local government autonomy which is enshrined in our constitution and has been upheld by the Supreme Court. The model empowers the state government with carte blanche on the council funds, it can take such funds from a local government and diverts it to execute projects elsewhere. Councils’ managements are stripped of autonomy, projects they proposed, considered germane in their local environment might not resonate with the state government and that stifles its execution right away. It allows the governor to determine the fate of millions of grassroots people.

That explains why in the six and a half years of Governor Makinde, growth and development have become alien to council areas especially outside Ibadan the state capital. That is why roads outside Ibadan are in total mess, both intra- and inter-towns roads. It is the reason the wonders wrought in the past at local government level could not be re-enacted again. It is the rationale behind new residential and industrial areas not being opened up with access roads. Gone are the days local governments determine and execute projects without interference, then, the grassroots was the better for it. Ogbomoso particularly really benefited from it – widespread road infrastructure, water provision, legacy projects, interventions in schools, market constructions, electricity projects, empowerment programmes, skill acquisition training programmes, empowering local contractors etc. Also, it promoted development of democracy at the grassroots, good leaders emerged that connected well with their people (and not the current situation of leaders being picked at the whims of the governor and his cronies and whose loyalty would inevitably be to their benefactors and not to the people they directly govern).

Your Excellency, your model has its advantages but critically considered, the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages. Democracy is now stunted at the local level since you begin to unilaterally select candidates, forbidding natural emergence and election, the system also impoverishes the grassroots, and deplorably, is liable to much abuse as we witnessed even under you, the model’s originator and chief proponent, which manifested in appropriating and diverting allocations meant for individual local governments to develop only the state capital. Practically, local governments outside the state capital in all your years as governor have been deprived of real development or will anyone tell me what “dividends of democracy” the people of Surulere, Oriire, Ogo-Oluwa and so on have witnessed, under this model? Whereas under the previous system each council area executed various projects and unfolded different programmes, with real values. But with your so-called model people who own the money have to grovel at your feet to be considered for development. For six and a half years local governments beyond Ibadan have lamented crying to have their dilapidated feeder roads repaired to no avail. How is such a model desirable then?

Under President Bola Tinubu no local government receives monthly allocation less than ₦10b (in Oyo state), some, ₦14b but do we have something commensurate on ground? So, Your Excellency your model is antithetical to fairness and justice, it breeds perversion. It’s egotistical and builds cult of leadership. May God forbid its being widely adopted. Moreover, it breaches the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and violates the Supreme Court judgement. It is rascally.