OREDO LGA 2018-2021: A MARRIAGE THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED.
EBEN ENASCO REPORTING
The need to break free from confinement and conditions of underdevelopment by the provision of adequate facilities for its citizenry, is the concern of all stakeholders.
By same conditions, It has also been accepted that this is better done by bringing government closer to the people.
This underscores the guiding principles behind the creation of local governments.
However, In Oredo, it is sad to note that between March 5, 2018, and March 5, 202, Oredo Council administrator was perceived by those who gave him the mandate to liberate them from seemly confinement of economic hardship performed far below expectations in the above direction.
Oredo Local Government unarguably, has the highest Sources of Internally Generated Revenue, amongst the 18-LGAs in the State.
During the period under review of the recent past Council Chairman, a mandatory daily internally Generated Revenue accruals was pegged at N33million naira officially generated daily from sales of tickets to municipal transporters, stalls, traders shops and all business activities within the metropolis.
The local bus drivers paid N800 Naira daily to council for ticketing while the Taxi drivers paid N400 Naira respectively.
Of the N800 Naira revenue collected, it was distributed evenly at N200 Naira, Meaning; N200 naira to state government, N200 Naira to Local Government, N200 Naira to RTAN, N200 Naira to Union of Road Transport respectively.
The revenue derived was later increased to 60million Naira generated per day by the Council.
The Governor, according to a source, later directed the Local Government to up the ante and generates N85 Million Naira daily on knowing the improved revenue accruals.
A 25% Sharing formula adopted which was divided amongst four key stakeholders applied to the distribution of the N85 million Naira generated daily.
25% to State government, Local Government, RTEAN and Union of Road Transport Owners.
By implications, Oredo Council received 25% of the accrual per day which amount to N20 Million from sales of tickets and other relevant revenue sources.
Revenues Stated here, were generated within the structure put in place on daily demands and not part of the Federal government monthly allocations.
There are other sources of revenue generation like the Council Marriage Registry.
That place has and will always be a conduit for siphoning funds. The out gone Chairman is not the only one guilty of this, it has become a reoccurring decimal for successive administrators.
It is in this wise, that inquest news takes a survey of the opinion of Respondents cut across various wards in Oredo Local Government
Area of Edo State, using simple percentages to analyze responses to questions.
Despite the author findings that funds available to local governments are grossly inadequate, there is the general impression that, the little money made available are directed into private pockets for selfish gains.
Evidently, the next door neighbor Council Chairman in IKpoba Okha, was able to perform with the little he generated within same tenure in office.
This put to mind that, monies have evaporated and condensed in unknown place.
CLAIMS HE PERFORMED BY FEW ELEMENTS.
Ordinarily, I would have left my pen in cold room iced up, but for some people who benefited from his spillages and want to make people believe that the Chairman has done a lot, it is apt to spell it out.
In the last few weeks to the end of his tenure, some persons cut across interests tried to defend their masters even when it was glaring that it was a wrong marriage.
According to one of the selected claims from the pool,
"Hon. Evbareke Jenkins Osunde has done quite a lot but I will just mention a few here; a health
center is being built at Evbueghai
community, ugogogin, primary school is also on going,
Evbuokuden has electricity, an industrial borehole and a town hall all completed"
"Okua has electricity and an industrial borehole, Okpebor has electricity, an industrial borehole all completed projects, Iguikpe has a primary school project, Irue
nowina has an industrial borehole, Ewinyomwanhu has a town hall completed".
"Uholor also has a primary school with full compliment. All these projects are situated in Ward 2".
"Recently a vigilante task force was put in place to smoke out criminals in the area mostly at Iyekogba, a hide out for kidnappers and criminals".
To further boost their operations, Hon. Osunde donated a Toyota
Hilux utility vehicle to the team.
Oredo made history as the first local govt to own a Magistrate Court".
"Hon.Osunde is not a noise-maker like some people wanted.If you're conversant with Kings square you would have observed that the Oba Ovoranmwen garden and park is wearing a new look”.
“It's really a site to behold. Wedding guests has since taken advantage of the park by taking photo shots around the water fountain”.
All these are just a few and if you're interested I can take you round, they're verifiable”, “the source claimed.
These summary by the author of this piece, looks beautiful but many angles to it revealed that, it was hurriedly done to further expose the chairman's Profligates just as it's never commiserate with the revenue generated for three years.
Local government serves a two-fold purposes.
The first purpose is the administrative purpose of supplying goods and services.
The other purpose is to represent and involve citizens in determining specific local public needs and how these local needs can be met.
One of such numerous reasons he underperformed, was that he was alien in interpersonal relationship with his local people.
He also did not have underpinning Policies blueprinted before he was sworn in as the henchman.
To know the feelings of your people, one must sleep, dine and wine with the people to overcome.
The out gone Chairman had no sophisticated structure and team to carry out relative operations hence a floater he was.
Away from that, as part of the Community & Social Development Project CSDP, Counterpart Funding, Oredo Council is Supposed to provide one million for the ten projects sited in the twelve wards in the Council.
Such projects include town hall, markets, health center and provision of Transformers.
The Health care center is part of the CSDP project which is primarily owned by World Bank.
For instance the bore hole at Emokpae Pry School. As we speak the borehole lasted few weeks and packed up.
The Chairman was to provide parameter fence at same
Emokpae Primary School but was never completed.
The Market he Commissioned at the rush hour was built by his predecessor Hon OSARO Obazee.
Even up to the generator in the Secretariat purchased by his Predecessor which has since packed up, but the Chairman was unable to revival before the expiration of his tenure.
The Council Operations depend on three hours power supply by BEDC to function.
In Oredo Local Government Area, the electorate appears to have married the wrong person for three years as the henchman.
I mean the wrong Chairman in centuries who was unaware he had nothing to offer as the lead steward
How do such errors happened, in our enlightened, knowledge-rich times?
We can say straight off that they occur with appalling ease and regularity.
Academic achievement and career success seem to provide no vaccines to his ineptness in the seat of power and the right time to correct such anomalies is now.
Otherwise, intelligent people daily would be left to seething if they don't blithely make the move.
Given that it is about the single costliest mistake any of us can make (it places rather large burdens on the state, employers and the next generation too), there would seem to be few issues more important than that of marrying intelligently.
It’s all the more poignant that the reasons why people make the wrong choices are rather easy to lay out and unsurprising in their structure.
We ruin our lives for reasons that can be summed up in an essay. They tend to fall into some following basic categories.
Sunny idunoze, Joshua
Osakpamwan and Madam
Osazuwa who are residents believed that the chairman claims of performing during the just concluded tenure was a propaganda and nothing to celebrate.
Accordingly, they said, "In ward two which is arguably the biggest ward in Oredo LGA, is the area the Chairman's claimed to had predominantly performed with a borehole sunked, and a maternity refurbished for three years. it is a catastrophe".
They argued that the tenure of the out gone chairman remains the worst they had experienced
Anyone we might marry could, of course, be a little bit wrong for us.
As a people We don’t expect bliss every day because we know that perfection is not on the card all the time.
Nevertheless, there are couples like Hon Jenkins Evbareke Osunde the out gone Seattle Oredo Chairman who displayed such deep-seated incompatibility, such heightened rage and disappointment, that we have to conclude that something else is at play beyond the normal scratchiness.
It is our recommendations that incoming successor should increase their revenue base and also ensure proper accountability.
