Posted by By TUNDE RAHEEM, Akure on
The chairman Ifedore Local Government in Ondo State, Hon. Adewumi Obele recently in an interview with Daily Sun highlighted his achievements in the council within the last one year and his plans to turn the council around.
The chairman Ifedore Local Government in Ondo State, Hon. Adewumi Obele recently in an interview with Daily Sun highlighted his achievements in the council within the last one year and his plans to turn the council around.
Excerpts
What have you been able to do to assist the people of your council?
We have done many things to better the lives of the people in our council. We have been able to build a primary school at Ajebamidele at Igbara Oke, we've rendered assistance to youths and students in terms of empowerment, grants and aids. In terms of agriculture, we were able to share over 20 seedlings of cocoa to our farmers as well as over 400 cutlasses. We have also given maize seeds. Recently, we have also visited those whose cocoa farms were gutted by fire. We gave some cash, while some were given seedlings.
In road construction, we have been able to construct over 150kilometers. If you go to the local government now, the last NDDC programme we had at Bolonduro, his excellency, the deputy governor directed that we should grade that road up to Ogotun boundary, if you go to the area now, that road has been graded. So, we are working at Onijaka and we expect to move to Isarun, Ibule and Eti in the next couple of days. In the health sector, we've gotten approval from the state government to purchase drugs and hospital equipment worth over N6million and we have been able to give out free drugs to children under five years and pregnant women.
We are trying to empower our youths, we have categories of them. There those who are educated and employed, they are in large number, we have those who are uneducated and unemployed, of course these are those who are giving us the problem because they are the majority. We are looking at how we can employ them. We have those who are educated and under employed some are graduates of engineering who are teaching in nursery and primary schools. We have the youth corpers, students in tertiary institutions, so we have to segment our policies towards these categories of youths. We have been able to renovate the divisional police station at Igbara Oke, we have renovated health center at Ijare, the female and male wards at Ijare, we are doing the fencing, and we want to equip it so that his Excellency can come around to commission it. We have a health post at Irese, of course, it has been completed, and we will soon commission all the projects.
You said that you have been able to provide mosquito nets at basic health centers, is it different from what the state government and UNICEF gave to your local government?
The assistance from the state in collaboration with UNICEF and WHO is going on at all the 18 local government areas in the state. If you look at the policy of the state government, they are treating those who are under five years of age and pregnant women free. But it is not the same thing in our basic health centers and maternities.
All we are doing is to replicate in our councils because we discover that there is a surge from basic health centers to comprehensive health centers and hospitals. What we are doing is to set aside about N200,000 every month to purchase drugs for those at the basic health centers and maternity so that people at the grass root can equally enjoy good health services.
There is this agreement between the local and state government where certain percentage of your fund are kept at the state for hospital projects. How much have you collected since you came into office?
As you said, it is an agreement between the local and the state government, it is not maybe the state deducting from source our money.
If you at the management of local government over the years, I want to say things have not been properly managed but at least things are better in Ondo State. Take a look at the situation where a council receives between N60 and N80million, may be after deduction you have N22 to N30million left at the end of the month and you are sure that this money is coming to the council, some of us who don't we have much programmes, they will make sure that they squander the money before the next month. The agreement we have in the state is that every month, a certain percentage of our allocation should be kept at the state and it will be released after three months with interest. The accrued interest would be released to the councils.
This is the transparency in the whole programmes that his Excellency, Governor Olusegun Agagu has been able to achieve in this state. The governor wants all the programmes to be executed to be MDG compliance. It must focus on health, roads, education and poverty alleviation.
How much were you able to collect from excess crude and what will you use the fund for?
His excellency discovered that most of our rural roads are very bad and he has directed that whatever we got from excess crude account should be solely for the laying of asphalt. For may local government I have prepared with my consultant to lay asphalt on 10 kilometers of roads.
What are you doing for indigenes in that council especially widows?
We have a programme for the widows, we are giving out N500,000 every month for those who are above 70, I mean the aged. We had a programme during ‘Gbemiro' when the wife of the governor came, she commissioned that project, and she gave a sort of grants to the widows on behalf of the local government.