By Taiwo Adisa
Since the July 11 judgment of the Supreme Court, which granted financial autonomy to the 774 local governments in the country, voices have been divided about the true say of the 1999 Constitution and the take of the apex court. Some have hailed the decision as affirming the existence of the third tier of government in the polity, while others have also opined that it was an affront to federalism. I have always maintained that no one-cube-fits-all situation to federalism and that even territories that operate a two-tier federalism model still guarantee financially free councils/counties/mayoralties.
The Nigerian scenario is such that state governments want to be seen as co-equal with the central government and want to be known as the federating units, while they emasculate everything about municipal or local governance, even though they agree that the local governments should benefit up to 20.6 per cent of the earnings of the federation set aside by the constitution. So I will agree that it’s something that calls for further discussion and a consensus.
If we want our federalism defined in a two-tier structure, then the funds standing in the name of the councils from the federation account have to be collapsed, such that the states can create the number of councils they deem fit and administer the same with funds at their disposal. But if we go by the system envisaged by the 1999 Constitution (as amended), a three-tier structure has been favoured. Something that looks like a homegrown model of federalism
My people in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, had taken advantage of that presidential model at the local government levels, starting from the early 1990s, through the 2000s. The military was operating a three-tier governance system, whereby the councils got their funds directly and utilised the same for the development of their areas. When the then military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) instituted the zero party elections at the councils, the people seized the opportunity to bring in credible administrators who could ensure the development of the town, using the council funds.
The regime of the late Chief Ayantayo Ayandele kick-started the pacy development and when the old council got split into Ogbomoso North and South local governments a sort of competition was ignited as the councils strove to outpace each other in the area of infrastructure development.
Occupants of chairmanship seats like Hon.Remi Odetomi and the late Adebayo Alao-Akala, continued the tradition after Chief Ayandele, and before long, most internal roads within Ogbomoso town had become not just motorable but reference points to other towns. Not many cared about the state of the federal road that cut through the town because they could easily access their locations once they veered off that main entry from either Ilorin/Ibadan/Oyo/Osogbo end.
It was a thing of pride for those visiting the town during Christmas and New Year and for the never-ending ceremonies. Many were never really bothered about the federal highway that traverses the town, which was always busy with crawling articulated vehicles and their troubles. Some would fall at critical junctions, obstructing traffic. Some would cause accidents, breaking fences and stalls. Because the internal roads were okay, many Ilorin/Ibadan bound buses easily made detours into the interiors of the town and found their way.
When President Olusegun Obasanjo on January 3, 2001, approved the award of the four-lane Ibadan/Oyo/Ogbomoso/Ilorin Expressway, many were upbeat that the traffic challenges posed by the trucks on the federal road would soon be over. But this is 2024, 23 years after the road was inaugurated, the Federal Government is yet to complete the Ibadan/Ilorin expressway, especially the Ogbomoso/Oyo end. With the complete collapse of the single-lane Ibadan/Ilorin federal road, the only option left for the trucks was to make a detour into the main town, and that led to the total collapse of the interior roads as well. The situation now is such that motorists seeking to cross from Ibadan to Ilorin must spend some six hours between Ogbomoso and Ilorin, a journey of less than 30 minutes.
Sometime last week, a former Senator, one whom I will regard as one the finest Ekiti State had produced in recent years experienced the fall of the old Ogbomoso/Oyo road. When he made a call to me, the voice sounded frantic and desperate for a solution. He started a journey from Ilorin, en route to Ibadan and was therefore condemned to use the Ilorin/Ogbomoso/Ibadan road. 30 minutes after the start of his journey, he got stuck in Ogbomoso and had to engage an okada rider to help navigate through the town. After the Okada rider had tried three possible outlets and was unsuccessful, he was on his way to the fourth, when the Senator called. The road was completely blocked and there was no way to navigate the main North-West/South-West highway.
Now that the internal roads have equally collapsed, the trucks conveying foodstuffs from the North and those conveying other products from the South had to dance unwarranted konko below in the ancient city, wasting lots of man hours. Some five, or six hours are devoted to that unbecoming dance steps daily. The effect is that the already biting food insecurity is further enamored, and we see that in the food inflation data presented by the National Bureau of Statistics month on month. Unfortunately, unlike the situation in the 1990s, the local governments have lost the power. So the people can no longer rely on their councils to effect their local version of federalism and ensure the roads are fixed to ease their travails.
Commentators would say that the federal road belongs to the Ministry of Works in Abuja. The same with the Ibadan/Ilorin Expressway, which has been under construction for 23 years! But the Federal Government is far away in Abuja. My checks revealed that the Oyo/Ogbomoso end of the expressway is just left with some 10 kilometres to link the already completed Ilorin/Ogbomoso section. Someone needs to appeal to President Bola Tinubu and his Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, to focus on this main artery before the Sokoto/Badagry super highway takes their attention away.
Moved at the danger to the North/South economy the Ogbomoso road was already constituting to food and energy security, Majority Leader of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Sanjo Adedoyin, moved a motion last week for the house to summon representatives of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in the state to give reasons why the main access to the North Western part of Nigeria must be left in such decay. We can only hope that Umahi will break the 23-year jinx and deliver the Ibadan/Oyo/Ogbomoso/Ilorin Expressway this time. His predecessors promised to no avail.
