On Wednesday, July 29, 2014, the Governor of Ekiti State, Dr Kayode Fayemi signed into Law, the Local Government Council Bill. With this, 19 additional Local Governments had been created, making the state to have a total of 35 Council, even with paltry federal allocation and Internally Generated Revenue that are accruing into the State.
The people had accepted the Fayemi’s parting gift with mixed feelings. The PDP had poured invectives on Fayemi for resorting to laying banana peels for the incoming administration of Mr Ayodele Fayose. Today, if there is anything that could be alluded to that had caused the total collapse of the post-election fraternity between Fayemi and Fayose, it is the creation of more Local Governments.
It is widely believed in some circle that the next Government may find it a herculean task to scrap the Councils the people had embraced and applauded, though with apparent signal that they were only oblivious of the economic reality of such policy.
The Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Pastor Kola Oluwawole had in various strongly worded statements lampooned Fayemi, describing him as a bad loser. The PDP had not hidden its disdain for this policy, it believed was targeted at pitting the people against the incoming government because drastic steps would have to be taken in addressing this sensitive issue.
It is not gainsaying the fact that local government creation may bring development to the doorsteps of the downtrodden masses But its viability, particularly in a state like Ekiti, with lean resources, could make many skeptical about its workability. It is inapposite and rather delusive , to liken Ekiti to economically viable State like Lagos in this context. It is a misapplied analysis for the government to have predicated its action on the success the APC recorded in Lagos with the creation of 37 LCDAs .
The recent financial status of Lagos State as at June, 2014, revealed that it raked in a sum of N120 billion in six months as internally generated revenue and this was an indication that it cannot be comparable with Ekiti in terms of policy formulation and execution, because access to opportunities are not the same.
A critical look at this Fayemi’s ‘greek’ gift could make one conclude that it is a good politics, but a bad policy. Politics is a good instrument to arrogate power. This is the more reason why those who got to government or into power and tended to despise politics, the ladder that brought them to stardom ended up being disgraced and consumed by the huge spark generated by such senseless action, because it is like joining two live wires together.
In actual fact, politicians of note like Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late Bola Ige, the late strongman of Ibadan politics, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and others see struggle for power as a war of survival of the fittest. They oiled their political machinery as if they are preparing for war to keep them in relevance and this had actually paid off.
With this policy, Fayemi has ended up in playing a fast game on the PDP. Having lost the June 21 Governorship election in an abysmal manner, the APC would have to restrategise to launch a comeback to power in 2018. This must have been one of the games on their cards and people seemed to have embraced the policy in all the benefiting communities.
With due respect to the PDP, the party had maintained a blunt reflex in reacting to the realization of the policy by Fayemi-led Government. Immediately the election came in PDP’s favour, I expect the leaders to be on red alert. I expect them to raise their permutation and strategic thinking to checkmate hurdles that would be put on their way, but they got carried away by the euphoria of the victory.
Though, the party later responded by going to Court to seek various reliefs to halt the entire process, But such effort was belated in the real sense of it. The party ought to see the policy as a veritable weapon for Fayemi and APC to score cheap political point. The PDP ought to have gone to court earlier to seek perpetual or interlocutory injunction restraining the Government from proceeding on the procedures, at a time it slept away in victory and got soaked in post election celebration. Lessons must have been learnt from this that reacting swiftly to situations remain the best tactics to forestall future backlash in politics.
The Governor-elect, Mr Ayodele Fayose has threatened fire and brimstone that the policy would not see the light of the day. He has
also accused the State House of Assembly of breaching the law on this matter. With his poor disposition, one could infer that he may end up scrapping the new councils. I want to say that doing so may sign his death knell in Ekiti politics.
It will be erroneous for the PDP to believe that the policy is unpopular among the masses. This is wrong and will remain wrong forever. The people must have rejected Fayemi at the poll, but the policy has not been entirely rejected because of the series of protests that were staged in Ikole, Erinmope, Ikun, Ire, Ijan, Osi, Igbole Ekiti and other towns that felt shortchanged through the exercise. The PDP must get this right, Ekiti Governorship poll and Local Government creation are not the same. So, brazen scrapping of these councils without due consultation would mean Fayose is courting trouble and stretching his popularity and acceptability beyond elastic limit.
The foregoing explanation does not mean I am rationalizing the impropriety of such action taken at the twilight of a tenure of a government. In party politics, there is ideological line of division.
The APC and PDP don’t run the same programme. With what Fayose said, he has no local governments’ creation in his manifesto and it will be difficult to sustain such when it has not been practised for long. But would a common man in Erinmope, Ire or Ikole Ekiti understands this? This is where the snag begins for Fayose.
Ekiti is 34th on revenue ladder among the 36 States of the federation. It is then laughable for a State that receives a paltry sum of N2.6 to N2.9 billion monthly to be operating 35 local governments. One question is imperative here, what has been the viability and economic contributions of the existing 16 full-fledged councils since inception of the State in 1996? I believe the policy is more of a political decoy than what Fayemi has portrayed it to be.
Prior to the conduct of the June 21 poll in Ekiti State, some aggrieved council workers had relayed how ineffective the Councils had been. They said that the executive arm has been stifling the tier to the extent that it has become functionless and fettered to carry out its statutory duties. One of them even labeled the tier as mere poverty alleviation ground.
Then what manner of viability is Fayemi planning to inject into these newly created councils? Because it will take a miracle for Ekiti to successfully fund them. If Local Government system has been dormant with the existing 16, in view of the State’s poor financial profile, I doubt whether it won’t go into extinction when the state is now operating with 35 without commensurate increase in federal allocation.
May be Fayemi is not cognizant of the fact that the new councils would have to be given take off grants, have political heads and employ more officials to carry out their day-to-day activities. Going by the provisions of the 1999 constitution, their creation would not bring any upward review in the revenue. This is because the policy is still inchoate until it is passed by the National Assembly.
The whole Ekiti is now looking up to Fayose to bring his administrative dexterity to bare under this circumstance . He must be able to meet the yearnings of the people: That is by either sustaining the new councils and run them successfully or scrap them in a much crafty and intelligent manner, without ruffling feathers with the people that have shown him so much love.
Written by Ahmed Salami.
