In this interesting interview, the Caretaker Chairman, Ibadan North East Local Government, Hon., Ibrahim Akintayo takes Ametrocopy.com through the activities of the council in the past months and the projections into the future.
In your experience sir, how do you think the creation of LCDAs has helped the government in reaching the people in the grassroots area?
Well, it’s a simple case of making the dividends of democracy reach a larger part at a quicker time so basically the creation of the LCDAs has made it a lot easier for our people to benefit faster. You can call it a division of labor which is a welcome idea and if we work hand in hand, there is nothing stopping the idea because it’s not a bad one. So far, it’s been good.
What have you been able to do as the chairman of this local government in the past months?
For a start, let’s bear in mind that we are just beginning to receive proposals to work and it’s been monetized but in the meantime, since I’ve been around last year December, we have done a couple of things like; grading of roads which is common sense for any chairman given the weather, you have to think about the season and do something to make it comfortable, we’ve also done dredging of rivers and we’re still doing that because we have a long stretch of river channels within the council areas. We started all the way before the bottlenecks to reduce any sort of flooding and we’ve got the approval to continue to dredge everything right from the start to the end of our local government to make the free flow of water possible, so there shouldn’t be any case of flooding within our council area and we’ll definitely monitor the process and if it gets piled up we’ll go back to it. We’ve done potholes patching done by Stone base, we’ve built a couple of culverts, the connection of electricity into the health center at Oke Ibadan because I find it very interesting how a health center wouldn’t have electricity and they give birth inside this same center. We’ve done repairs of boreholes, drainage works both inside the council and outside the council. Now we are looking at the erection of solar street lights to enhance night-market in the Oje market, so people can come to the market and see who is who. It’s also for security and we’ve gotten approval for that.
We are also doing the refurbishment of the Jonku market between Akobo and Iwo Road, we are looking at turning the whole market around because it is non-existent which boils down to a simple assessment which wasn’t properly done. So we are looking at doing some construction works, reviving the market, bringing in more people for trade then giving life to the market generally.
Another thing we are looking at is the creation or re-introduction of bus stops, if you look at Agodi gate area by the prison, half of the road has been taken over by traders, bike men and all, so we are using the setbacks there which is about eighteen meters, it’s a lot, so we are using like eleven meters up to the turning that leads to Solid waste, get a stand for Okada riders and taxi drivers, we want to clear everybody off the street to avoid causalities, imagine a brake failure of a trailer in that sloppy area, God help us, so we need to think about the safety of our people and how we can assist them without affecting their livelihoods. The other side to Wema will have national kiosks where sellers get to sell their goods. Those are the things we are looking at to do in the next few months.
You’ve spoken on the health sector, markets, and transports, is there any plan for the educational sector?
Yes, we’ve done critical assessments of schools especially primary schools in our local government area and we’ve done a report sheet that even when we have a breakdown of amenities like a fan is faulty or the chairs are bad, we want to know, we have like a ledger where we can have a holistic view into everything that happens in our schools. Then we can either seek for approval to do some of these things and the ones we can’t afford, we’ll take it down to the state level, SUBEB and have a chat with the chairman there so he can advise us on what to do. We are going to be doing a lot in the education sector.
In terms of security, we’ve had a series of meetings with security personnel and we’ve reached an agreement on the hotspots they are manning day to day now.
Hardly will you hear of any case of theft or robbery within our local government that’s one, secondly all the hotspots again that needs to be lit, we are writing to the state government to put the solar street lights there as well to lit the area so patrols can be done easily. Thirdly, we are working with community leaders to give us information on any case of theft or any other criminal act within the communities. The truth is, when a thief is being chased in an area and he disappears, it’s clear that he did not just disappear; someone is harboring him. So we have told the people not to harbor criminals for their safety.
There are a whole lot of things we want to do and we are hoping God will help us through and give us grace.
Looking at the security upheavals in some parts of the state recently, are you engaging local vigilante groups in the maintenance of peace and orderliness in your local government?
There is something going on as regards that at the moment, the full account cannot be revealed for security reasons but everything is under control as we have the new CP working with us. I believe all is going to be well.
How do you generate funds for all these projects?
Well, given the current situation of the country at large now we know the budget and allocation from the federal government has been slashed madly so we had a round table talk with council officers to deliberate on the way forward by looking into our IGR so we agreed on going cashless.
The posters there on the floor are for the cashless system.
You pay to the agent who transfers from his wallet to the council’s IGR account. So everything is transparent and there is clear accountability. The only challenge there is, there will no longer be negotiations on shops and spaces, everything is done through profiling, we are going to be profiling every property and persons such that if you own 10 shops in Ibadan North East, your name and face will be on those ten shops, that’s basically what we are planning to do and we pray God help us.
What are the investment opportunities in this local government that private investors can key in to?
There are lots of them, the only downside to it is that this is an urban area with limited land spaces but when it comes to management and maintenance, you can invest in that because there are a lot of shopping malls and complexes and people can partner with us for maintenance on a PPP basis. We know this is out of our hands and it’s on lease with you managing whatever comes from there but we know our buildings are properly managed and taken care of with annual or monthly remittances. Another thing is, every land in this area is appreciating and they are worth millions of naira so our lands are like goldmines and we are keeping them in shape so we want the best to take care of whatever thing we are bringing out so we are partnering with people who have things to bring on board for us.
We have various market spaces that can be used for marketing as well.
So, what’s your local government doing about partnering with private organizations with regards to the fight against coronavirus?
I’ve had to answer this question a couple of times and I’ll start by saying that to the glory of God today, my council is the first to come out in the whole state to start this fight against Covid-19, we were the first to start sensitization, pictorial pictures to give clear indications and instructions on what is coming, how it’s going to come, what is going to happen and what to do. We were the first to introduce bikers and town criers to go to the communities to educate the people. We were the first to start these things and we are still on it. We’ve also done jingles and posters, we’ve written to places of worship to follow directives of the state on the preventive measures of Covid-19.
What are the challenges you’re faced with in terms of administration and shoring up your revenue?
In terms of that, the normal bureaucracy would happen because it’s a case of ‘can you do it or can you not’ and what we are bringing on board is a new system which has not been done anywhere in Nigeria from my research, so it’s a bespoke system for Ibadan North local government only, where whatever you’re paying and what we are charging you is online with a generated receipt. It’s been a serious challenge to educate our people even within the executives of the council but we are finally here and we are starting our sensitization campaign first week next month.
Do you have a database for these? Is there a server for it or a structure on ground to manage that?
Yes, we are putting things in place, it is one step at a time but what we are looking at is getting the database of everyone living in the Ibadan North-East local government, we want to know the number of disabled people in Ibadan North-East, the number of unemployed people in the council area, not just the educated ones but also the skilled ones that can’t afford to buy equipment to start-up, we want to know the number of elderly people above sixty years of age who are traders and other categories. So it’s a lot.
Is there a challenge in the area of infrastructure?
Of course but the only solution there is to get approval for financial support to work towards getting them.
Lastly, you’ve been in this office for over six months now, do you intend to contest in the forthcoming LG elections?
God willing, I’ll consider that, it’s all based on our performances so if we perform well and they deem it fit to have us then yes I’ll contest.
Thank you for your time sir
Thank you for having me
