Political parties and individuals have come out to condemn the Osun government for its inability to conduct local council polls in the state in the run-up to the state’s 2022 gubernatorial election.
DAILY POST also gathered that the state government was planning to make available a list of caretaker committee members for the local governments, a development which did not later materialise.
Speaking with DAILY POST, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) through its Director of Media and Publicity, Oladele Bamiji said the Adegboyega Oyetola administration is confused even as it alleged that the governor was using the state as a pawn in his intraparty squabbles chess game.
While describing the situation as unfortunate, the Osun PDP Spokesman observed that the governor appeared inept as he felt the state can be kept aground forever to save his personal interest.
According to him, “We have always challenged the governor to test the popularity of his government and that of the All Progressives Congress by conducting local government election in the state. But we understand his predicament, that of being afraid of the injurious judgement the good people of Osun State would inflict on his administration by the increasingly frustrated people of our state.
“However, the governor should know that he cannot escape the looming disgrace forever.”
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He accused the state government of pummeling the third tier of government to bankruptcy because the governor enjoyed perpetrating fraud by sitting on the monthly allocations meant to develop the local governments.
“The local governments is the closest to the grass root. This is where a vast majority of our people reside and it has been battered to a level of bankruptcy.
“It is what they have been doing since they found their way into Osun State and it is quite appalling some people could be so heartless.
“We urge Mr. Oyetola to stop equating Osun to his personal estate as governance is different from politicking and if he does not understand that simple responsibility to the state, he should resign and give Osun State a breathing space.
Also speaking on the same issue, the Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Osun State, Olufemi Samuel Awe disclosed that the APC in Osun from the Rauf Aregbesola administration, where the incumbent was Chief of Staff was running an unusual government.
He revealed that the 1999 Nigerian Constitution did not give room for caretakers to run local governments adding that it was unconstitutional to practice a parliamentary system of government within the local government under a presidential system.
He explained that elected officials at the local government were not supposed to serve the state but to be representatives at the grassroots saddled with the implementation of the people’s wishes.
The SDP chairman accused the APC administration in the state of usurping powers at the local government level to spend allocations meant for them for capital projects that benefits them.
He maintained that the lack of elected official at the local government level is a rape on the grassroots as local council election remain the only democratic way for the government to perform and be responsible for development.
“There is total forfeiting of the third tier of government in Osun State. How can the state government get the response of the people? The administrators in each local government have no direct link to the people.
“They are only stooges to implement the directives as directed by the governor as regards the federal allocation.
“The best option to get adequate feedback by the state government is to have elected local officials at the local government level.”
Also an analyst, Mr. Adewuyi Arowoogun said it was clear that the state government has decided to keep the third tier of government in captivity even though the feedback has been a monumental failure.
He stressed that this refusal to conduct polls at the local government level has constituted a clog in the wheel of development and the system has not been allowed to work as it is ought to.
He accused the state government of crippling administration at the grassroots level by deliberately withholding funds meant for their development.
Arowoogun explained that the inability of the local councils to access funds directly has made most of them incapable of executing any visible capital project in the last decade such that the access roads to most of the local government headquarters are impassable and it appears that there is no foreseeable solution in sight.
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