The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo state has lamented the preponderance of pressure being mounted on its elected officials, federal appointees and privileged members by the masses as a result of the strangulation of the 33 local government councils by Governor Seyi Makinde, urging residents of the state to demand accountability for the council funds since May 2019.
There are indications that the joint account arrangement between the state government and the 33 LGAs have hindered the effective performance of the third tier of government since council officials lack the power to manage funds allocated to them from the federation accounts on monthly basis.
In a statement issued on Thursday and made available to journalists in Ibadan by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, Oyo APC faulted the leadership of the State House of Assembly for its inability to compel Gov. Makinde to make available funds to its members for the purpose of empowering their constituents as it was the practice before 2019 and as it is case in most states across the country.
“We have observed the current situation across the state and we have come to realize the amount of pressure being mounted on all the elected officials particularly the serving members of the National Assembly. Our federal lawmakers are now the ones feeling the heat as residents of the state demand more dividends of democracy especially at the grassroots.
“Ideally, the third tier of government should be the closest to the people but handlers of the existing 33 local government councils are not visible or accessible and the reason for this is largely due to the fact that Gov. Makinde has been in total control of the funds which should have been used to take care of citizens at the grassroots. In the last 68 months, no single local government in the state has been able to deliver essential services to the residents.
“And to make the matter worse, most people do not care to distinguish among the three tiers of government as they keep blaming the government at the centre whereas it is the governor who deprives them by rendering the councils ineffective deliberately. This scenario explains why residents approach Senators and Members of the House of Representatives to provide electricity transformers, street lights and boreholes. They also ask them to fix deplorable community roads, build health care facilities, police posts, culverts among other things even as they (constituents) feign ignorance of the primary responsibility of the lawmakers in Abuja.
“However, we deem it necessary to salute the courage of all APC federal lawmakers for rescuing the situation in the state. Our senators and Representatives in the Green Chamber have always been the ones that make themselves available to the residents as each them can be reached by the weakest in the society. They have never been tired of donating power transformers, street lights and boreholes to communities while they strive to secure employment for the youth population in addition to sponsorship of overseas education and training.
“Interestingly, serving APC lawmakers have begun to intervene in the area of food security as they facilitate training of the farmers in modern practice of agriculture while they also equip them with essential tools, seedlings, grains, fertilizer and grants. In the area of education, APC lawmakers are never tired of facilitating the construction of ultra modern classroom structures and ICT centres while they also provide financial empowerment and palliatives to the people at regular intervals.” Sadare stated.
