Governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) in Oyo State, Hon Bimbo Adekanmbi, has challenged his counterpart in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Sharafadeen Alli, to show what he has done in the last three years he has been in the Senate to ensure local government autonomy.
Adekanmbi, Alli and local government autonomy
He said the APC candidate, in his last three years as senator representing Oyo South Senatorial District, has done nothing to promote local government autonomy on the floor of the Senate.
He accused Alli of politicising the issue of local government autonomy, saying he was only making empty promises to deceive the people.
Adekanmbi, while featuring on a Fresh 105.9FM Ibadan programme, “Political Circuit”, said the promises were only meant to secure votes without concrete plans on how local government autonomy would be granted.
He said: “This my egbon that is saying he is the champion of local government autonomy has been in the Senate for over three years. He has no single Bill to that effect. You know you are coming back to say you want to govern a state where you were once a local government chairman.”
The APM candidate also spoke on how he would handle local government administration, if and when elected as the governor of the state.
“There are three types of autonomy that should be championed. There is judicial autonomy, there is legislative autonomy and there is the local government autonomy.
“The reason why my egbon and Kabiyesi Sharafadeen Alli is mentioning local government autonomy is because it is a life wire for getting votes.
“Has there ever been local government autonomy in Oyo State and in Nigeria? What became of the autonomy we had then.
“During the military era there was local government autonomy. What we found out is that there are different situations in different local government areas.
“In urban Oyo State, there was massive bottleneck of salary and pension payments. They couldn’t pay their salaries because they had a lot of teachers, but the less urban areas could pay.
“Unfortunately, the local government area that had the worst record as an autonomous local government area was Ibadan North where Barrister Sharafadeen Alli was the chairman. He had autonomy; he owed several months of salaries to teachers and even arrested them.
“There was a report indicting the then chairman of mercilessly looting that local government to the ground.
“So it was the situation and the dichotomy between the urban and the rural local government areas then that led to JAAC.
“It became a law enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the monies due to local governments are now paid into a pool and all the first line charges like the primary school teachers salary are deducted and the rest are shared with particular formulas.
“It is the JAAC Law that Governor ‘Seyi Makinde is implementing till today.
“I have done my third local government assessment. You and I listen to people, listen to their demands, part of which is that the local government chairmen should be freed.
“But Governor ‘Seyi Makinde does not have the power to implement local government autonomy. No state governor in Nigeria has power to grant local government autonomy, even in the APC because the law of Nigeria as it stands now is in favour of JAAC.
“The Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that there should be direct payments to local government, but to implement the judgement requires two fundamental things.
“Number one, the legislators must amend the constitution and secondly, the executive will implement.
“This my egbon that is saying he is the champion of local government autonomy has been in the Senate for over three years, he has no single Bill to that effect.
“You know you are coming back to say you want to govern a state where you were once a local government chairman and you looted it dry.
“So to have local government autonomy the law has to be amended. ‘Seyi Makinde cannot do that by himself and there is no state governor that can do that.
“I am saying it live that anybody that comes and says that he wants to grant local government autonomy is mercilessly telling lies to get the people’s votes.
“They are doing this because they know that is what the people want to hear. But I will not go and promise people local government autonomy.
“A governorship candidate that says he is going to grant local government autonomy when he doesn’t have the power has already failed.
“However, I will try and look at what the issues are. There are four questions to be answered in tackling the issue.
“Number one is what happens when the money for salaries and pensions are not enough. Secondly, what gives the guarantee of fiscal responsibility and transparency. Thirdly, how do you prevent the chairmen from doing what you are accusing state governors of doing and lastly what happens when the money from Abuja stops?
“However, Bimbo Adekanmbi, as governor, has answers to those fundamental questions. I will ensure that the local people have a say in the spending of their money.
“I want to challenge my egbon, Barrister Sharafadeen Alli, to tell us how he will grant local government autonomy and how he performed while he was chairman of Ibadan North Local Government Area,” Adekanmbi declared.
