Building Confidence In The Electorate

Governance has been described as the act of governing, which relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists of either a separate process or part of management or leadership processes. These processes and systems are typically administered by a government.

In recent times, there have been criticisms of some local councils as residents have described many of the councils as failures, a development which led to serious apathy in some areas during the last local government elections in the state.

However, only few of the council chairmen have been seen to be performing, and among them is Alhaji Mafe Abiodun Abdul-Rasheed, the chairman of Mosan-Okunola Local Council Development Area, Lagos, southwest Nigeria.

Political Platform went round to sample the opinion of residents to know how much they have felt the impact of his government during his first term and their expectations from him in this dispensation.

Despite showers of encomium by many, some believed that a lot can still be achieved, most especially now that he has been bestowed with the leadership of the council for a second term.

A walk round the area showed that there has been tremendous improvement in the area of infrastructure; virtually all the public schools in the area have been given face-lift, youths in the area have been empowered, the health sector has not been left behind, while security of lives and property have been given priority.

Some residents, who shared their views with Political Platform concerning the performance of the council, gave kudos to the council boss for what he has achieved in his first term.

When Political Platform met with Mafe, the man at the helms of affair, he said: “When I was campaigning in 2008, I had a 10-point agenda, which I can say I have been able to execute to certain extent. Initially, our major challenge was fund, but with the support of our people, we have been able to overcome that challenge.

In this LCDA, we have embarked on various projects which is a way of fulfilling our electoral promises. We have also been able to improve on our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) because when we came in, the IGR was around N8million to N10 million, but now, we have increased it to about N20 million, with which we have been able to execute most of the projects in the LCDA.

“So far, we have constructed about 26 drainages starting from Ladega Street, Fashola Street, Idoani to Cele Village. We also constructed some drainages at Gowon Estate; we constructed roads in Odemuyiwa, Fadipe Street and rehabilitated some in Shagari Estate.

“Also, streets in Abesan and Federal Low Cost housing estates were rehabilitated. We also gave some communities electricity transformers.

“In the area of education, we built six blocks of classrooms each in African Children Primary School in Abesan with standard toilets for the children and Abesan Housing Primary School. We also gave one thousand free JAMB and GCE forms to students. We organised remedial classes for our students, 85 per cent of whom are in higher institutions as I am talking to you.

On health, the chairman said the council has done well because “we believe that health is wealth and if you are healthy you can do anything. “In Akinogun, we completed the primary healthcare centre, we made the road leading to the hospital accessible and equipped the health centre with medicaments and it now operates 24 hours.

“At Okunola, we have a two-storey multipurpose structure where we have a befitting hospital with the approval of the state government, and it was commissioned on July 30, 2011. The place is fully equipped by the council and minor surgeries are being done in the hospital. The state government has come to our aids now by giving us more staff. So far, 12 babies have been delivered in that hospital.

“On security, we have tried our best because when we came into power, we purchased a vehicle each for Gowon Police Station and Ipaja Police Station, we also gave them 50 sets of walkie-talkies.

“We renovated the State Security Service (SSS) office in Alimosho. Before we came in, the state of security was nothing to write home about, and we can say that with what we have done, crime has reduced in the area drastically.

“On empowerment, we have sent our women on vocational studies; the youths have been empowered in the area of agriculture, we have given out pepper grinding machines, tricycles, motorcycles and sewing machines to get them gainfully employed.

“In all, it has been great serving at the grassroots; with the little funds we have, we have been able to achieve all what I have enumerated as our people have been very cooperative. They ask questions when they are not clear about issues, and we also run a participatory government,” he concluded.