In this short interview, the Caretaker Chairman, Ibadan East LCDA, Hon Abiodun Babalola, shares with Ametrocopy.com the giant strides the council has recorded in the past months and what more it has up the sleeves.
From your own experience, how well has the LCDAs lived out their mandate of establishment which is bringing governance closer to the people?
I believe it’s really fulfilling its purpose, because from the definition of democracy: government of the people, by the people and for the people. So when we increased the number of local governments from thirty-three with LCDAs to make sixty-eight, what we are doing neutrally is to enlarge the scope of indirect participation of people in politics and that would give people lots of opportunity to exercise their leadership skills or calling, it’ll bring the governance closer to people and this makes them more responsible to the people.
Are you saying you’ve been able to reach more people?
Yes
In the last six months that you got into the office, in what ways can you say you’ve impacted the people positively?
So far, it’s been good. When we were sworn in, we were told that we are going to be the eyes, mouth, ears and hands of the governor. In essence, we are to stand for him on anything we hear or see on his behalf. So far, we’ve been able to do a couple of projects although it’s still limited because of the ongoing litigation.
But let me brief you on the things we’ve done; when we came in sometimes in December, students were preparing for their Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) exams, we tried looking out for what we can do as leaders who look out for the environments and what can happen in a season, so we discovered that we could actually prepare students ahead of their exams both JAMB and WAEC, so we rolled out a free registration for Jamb lesson enrollment and we strategically picked centers that will be easily accessible to them. In our LCDA here we chose central places like Olubadan at Orita Aperin, Renascent at Agugu which are quite strategic places to anyone living in Ibadan East LCDA. We got them teachers and materials for about two to three and a half months. That was our first duty.
Secondly, as a trained engineer and scientist, I looked at the machines we have here which have been grounded for a long time, we called repairers to do an estimate for repairing them and bringing them back to good condition because I believe they are money generating equipments and asides that we know the machines would do a lot of good for our people. We saw a need after a request dropped by some people in Idi Obi as regards a thick forest which is between Agugu and Renascent where several criminal activities have been taking place. Two principals already sent a petition before I came and when I got the letter; I saw a need for us to take actions so we started work on the forest as we were told that criminal acts are being committed with that forest as an escape route to criminals so we brought the forest down completely.
Furthermore, from my knowledge about ambience and conducive environments and their implications on work productivity, I did like a ward round in my office to check the offices and I realized some amenities like fans, seats were lacking so we wrote for funds and we got funds to sort those things out, if you were here before now, you would spot the difference. We bought about twenty ceiling fans, standing fans and we did painting as well.
We did a general renovation to the local government office we are in at the moment. We fixed chairs that got spoilt as well.
How were you able to do this, did you reach out for partnership?
One thing we believe is that, government might not be able to do everything so we got partnership with some non-governmental bodies in Lagos and they brought foodstuffs which were distributed across the twelve wards we have here in this local government as well as protective materials like sanitizers, nose masks among others. Another non-governmental organization we got which is an affiliate of College of Medicine, University of Ibadan also helped. Realizing the low partnership Oyo state has with non-governmental organizations I decided to build contact with them, we met on discussing a research into why parents don’t allow their wards get immunization and we realized that some of these women are market women who can’t leave their work to take their kids for immunization, so we devised a mobile immunization system to bring immunization to people and it was launched months ago.
Also, when we came on board I had training sessions with the staff I met on ground as we don’t get to choose people that work with us, so together we defined our goals and aims which makes it easy for us to work together today because they were able to see what we were trying to achieve. Everything we’ve done like I mentioned came in the picture with the help of town hall meetings with our people. We hold town hall meetings with the people before the start of any project where people get the chance of airing their opinions and sharing their needs. Sometimes, government embark on projects that the people don’t even need but we decided to get to know their needs and we follow their flow which is why they appreciate every little thing we do because it’s their demand not ours.
Going forward, what other projects are you looking to embark on?
Yes, we have a lot of things to do but just as human wants are unlimited, we have limited resources so we need to prioritize and properly manage our resources for effective results. One of the frequent worries I have is how our health centers are being burgled, so we are working on fixing burglaries for fourteen primary health centres from the entrances, windows and all. We would have loved to rebuild the health centres but we are limited by our resources. Health is wealth, when your health is firm then you can do well…I believe a sound mind lives in a healthy body so I’m prioritizing the health centers One of our wards, I think ward two has no single health centre and I’m envisaging to build two before my six months term expires. I forgot to mention that we did something at Oranyan Market where we did two blocks, six outlets water closet toilets with a well and pumping machine reservoir with a generator to power it. We are going to be doing this for the other two, Orita Aperin and Oje Market with that of Orita Aperin starting next week then Oje is in line as we’ve written a proposal for that.
Another thing is creating an Agric market here in this local government and we are starting that next week as well. Most times, career people and elites are not chanced to go to the market at all times to get their livestock products so we’ve reached an agreement with a farm that would bring farm crops, vegetables and livestock to the area for them to buy on a subsidized amount with an opportunity to buy and pay later. We are also going to do something for our schools for proper cleaning and we hope we get resources as talk is cheap.
How do you generate funds for these projects?
Well, the federal government is supposed to be responsible for some funding but our governor is a law abiding person who likes to get thorough research of things before diving into it, so he is still looking into the LCDAs before issuing funds. We’ve been able to do much with the little we’ve got because we are committed to this course.
Would you be contesting in the coming LG elections?
If I am still alive and the people want me, I am here to serve.
