NFIU Policy Won’t Gurantee Even Development In LGs- Osun Commissioner

The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Osun state, Prince Adebayo Adeleke has said that the autonomy granted local governments would not bring even development to all the councils.

He said while some councils still have little fund to carry out development in their domains after their statutory payments, some do not even have enough for their statutory payment, not to talk of carrying out developmental projects.

Adebayo while speaking with newsmen in his office in Osogbo on Tuesday said, before the NFIU policy, the allocations are shared to councils after the deduction of their statutory payments, and every council would have something to hold on to.

According to him, though the allocations of the local government are now going directly to the councils’ pulse in line with the NFIU policy, the state government is still bearing the brunt for the councils that have shortfall in their allocations.

“For some local governments that are viable, after payment of their statutory like salary, pension and some others, they still have something left, but for the ones that are not viable, they don’t even have enough to pay the statutory.

“At the end of it all, they refer back to the state and it is the Governor that bears the brunt by striving so hard to see that the people of the councils don’t suffer.
“The reality is that with this system of NFIU, there won’t be even development in the councils.

“For the councils that are buoyant, they have done well, but for those that are not viable, you can’t blame them because their performance depend on what comes as allocation”, Adeleke stressed.

He also said, the state under the leadership of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola has taken it as a point of duty to regularly monitor the activities of the local governments in the state in a bid to ensure they follow strictly the developmental agenda of his administration.

According to him, the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs under his watch has started an assessment tour to all the councils to see the level at which development is taking place and to ensure that all the projects embarked on are in conformity with the developmental agenda of the governor.

“Governor Oyetola has been so proactive in ensuring proper monitoring of the local governments activities especially in the area of project execution.

“He has mandated my ministry to adequately monitor the activities of all the local governments in the state in order to ensure it tally with the vision and mission of this administration and we have been doing that by embarking on assessment tour.

Speaking on the road network across the local governments in the state, Adebayo said the governor has graciously approved tarring of 5kilometre roads in each of the local governments in the state.