Why FG Must Increase Allocation To LGS

Comrade Ayodele Adewale is the Chairman of Amuwo Odofin Local Government. In this interview with Kazeem Ugbodaga, he speaks on the need for the Federal Government to increase allocation to the local government and other issues.

Having been on the saddled for 36 months as a council chairman, what can you say is the biggest challenge facing local government administration in Nigeria?

The biggest challenge is funding because local government is a tier of government that is closest to the people. It is grassroots government and as such the people believe that whatever happens in their environment is the sole responsibility of the local government, forgetting that the federal and state governments have their responsibilities to the councils. If not for Lagos State and other Action Congress of Nigeria-controlled states in the southwest; you see that state governments’ responsibilities have not reflected on the lives of people at the grassroots level; that is why you still see a lot people running down to Lagos for greener pasture. People want you to solve all their social problems as quickly as possible but then the fund is not there to shoulder such responsibilities. The Federal Government must come to the aid of local governments by increasing their allocations and also taking responsibilities for projects like roads and electricity. We believe that if these things are done, the local government can then pick up other responsibilities assigned to it in the Nigerian Constitution. The space in term of responsibility in the constitution must also be expanded. For instance, some people believe that the local government should provide energy for them, although we can, but again we are limited by the constitutional provision which has empowered the Federal Government to do that. All of these responsibilities must be reviewed; the grassroots government must be more empowered to service the people and tackle issues as they come.

What is your reaction to the complaints of decayed infrastructure in your council especially roads in Festac Town?

The infrastructure in Festac were provided by the Federal Government; and because of the amount of fund required to maintain them, the Federal Government, having neglected its responsibility over 25 years, should come to the aid of the local government to ensure that the infrastructure are revamped. That is not to say that the local government has not done anything, it is on record that we have done 12 roads in Festac Town but the road network is very big and enormous in terms of fund. The local government does not have the capacity to take up such infrastructural challenges but we are doing a lot of intervention. For instance, we have de-silted all tertiary and underground drainages but the more the de-silting continues, the more money it takes and looking at the resources that we get from the Federal Government allocation, we are limited. The big market that we have at ASPMDA has not brought any revenue to the local government. The Festac residents have a case in court against Lagos State on Land Use Charge; very few of the residents pay tenement rate apart from the commercial points. By the time you put the sums together, the amount is not even enough to meet the contending needs of the local government. The administration has created 840 jobs. The health sector in the local government has improved drastically, we met one doctor but now we have 21 doctors. We give free drugs and we have rehabilitated almost all the primary schools; out of 20, we have done 17 and work is going on at the remaining three. We have provided vocational training for the youths. We have also supported some of them with JAMB and GCE forms; we have bought 1,200 GCE and 1,000 JAMB forms for them.

Whose responsibility is it to fix Festac Roads?

It is the responsibility of the Federal Government because it is a federal estate. There is no estate where you don’t pay service charge or development levy, check it out, even in some estates, before you put up your structures, they collect development levy. After that, they still collect service charge from you, this is true in estates like Agbara, Magodo, 1004, Eric Moore Tower, Marina Tower, even the CBN Estate in satellite Town, there is no estate where service charges are not collected in order to serve the community, yet, we use federal allocation and internally generated revenue to sustain development here. This is not enough; people must rise up to their social responsibility. Some residents here refuse to pay the Private Sector Operators (PSP) to evacuate their wastes; there is no how we can sustain development with this. The community must partner with government in terms of levies and rates that is the only panacea to having a safe and clean environment that is devoid of vices.

Most of these residents are retirees and complain about multiple levies and taxation, yet you expect them to partner government in development?

There is no levy that comes from my council to them. The levy that they get is meagre like the radio licence levy which is N500 paid once in a year, which is approved by the Lagos State House of Assembly where they have their representatives. If you say you are a retiree and you live in a community that must also be serviced, the law states it very clearly that the retirees are exempted from some levies and taxes. But even in developed countries, senior citizens are exempted but again some classes of people also pay for them in a way. What retirees should do for us is to educate the people within the community to pay their levies and taxes.

The retirees can also mobilise the community, especially the youths to come out on the day of environmental sanitation exercise to clean their environment, thereby reducing the cost of cleaning the environment on the local government. These are some of the things that they can do. I can assure you that any retiree that has been charged illegal levy or levies should bring such issue to my office and it will be addressed.

Can you say that you have done well as a youths’ ambassador in governance?

In administration, judging by what we have been able to do, I have been a very good ambassador for the youths. Looking at the local government administration in Nigeria where some people are clamouring for the scrapping of the local government as a tier of government and looking at what we have been able to do in Amuwo Odofin, we have done very well to justify the fact that local government administration can indeed be very affective and it can work for the purpose of its creation. To that extent, I have been a good ambassador to the youths.