Ekiti State Governor Biodun Oyebanji on Thursday swore in 38 local government chairmen and their deputies, urging them to place high premium on radical improvement on the security of lives and property, as well as revenue generation in their councils.
Oyebanji also gave a marching order to the council chairmen to rev up the pedal of development by building on the strong foundation laid by their predecessors, saying his administration would not tolerate any form of security lapses at the third tier of government under their watch.
The governor said these in Ado- Ekiti yesterday during the inauguration of the council chairmen held at Osuntokun Pavillion, Government House, Ado-Ekiti.
The council chairmen were elected during the December 2, 2023 local government election.
Addressing the council bosses, Oyebanji, represented by the Deputy Governor, Chief (Mrs) Monisade Afuye, described the local government as an integral part of overall development focus and strategy of his government that requires adequate attention to tackle the menace of poverty, joblessness and insecurity.
The governor praised the immediate past chairmen and those that were re-elected for demonstrating enough political and administrative acumen to deliver, in spite of the multifarious challenges associated with being pioneers.
Expressing zero tolerance for corruption and pilfering of council funds, the governor urged them to discharge their duties with utmost “honesty, impartiality, even-handness, compassion and fairness”, adding that they must work assiduously for the actualisation of the shared prosperity mantra of his government.
The state’s chief executive revealed that he decided to put machinery in motion for the conduct of election at the local government level to further corroborate how desirous he was for the councils to be run in a democratic manner.
He saluted the former chairmen for their outstanding performances and for being shrewd and dexterous in playing local politics that was chiefly associated with the running of local government system, saying this reflected in their acceptability and connectivity with the people.
On his commitment to stamp out bandits, kidnappers and other criminal elements out of Ekiti, the governor urged the chairmen to prioritise security at all times, noting; “You must be deliberate about this.”
“Your security plans and strategies should be communicated to me through the office of Special Adviser on Security , as soon as you take over. I will not tolerate security lapses in your domains, therefore, ensure all critical stakeholders are carried along and are involved”.
Oyebanji advised the council bosses against relying solely on the funds accruing to them from the federation and state accounts to run the affairs of the councils, to avert administrative failure and inability to fulfil their electioneering promises.
“You need money to run a successful administration. It is not enough to rely on federal and state allocations, you have to improve your internally generated revenue and ensure it forms a sizeable source of your funding revenue.
One of your major performance metric will be how much IGR you generate and how much it contributes to your project financing. Government will be looking at the possibility of giving conditional, mileage-incentive to councils with significant IGR improvement”.
The Chairman of Ajoni LCDA, Michael Ogungbemi, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, pledged that they would work hard to surpass the expectations of the governor in their performances.
He said the new council bosses would complement the governor’s deft move to rescue Ekiti from poverty, by replicating his policies at the local government level.
