By Bilesanmi Abayomi
In an exclusive interview with Kosofe Post, Prince Debo Adesina, a Security Expert, founder of Nigerian Lives Matter, and a former People’s Democratic Party aspirant for Kosofe Constituency 1 House of Assembly in 2023, shared his views on the Kosofe Local Government administration led by Moyosore Ogunlewe Esq over the past 2 years and 30 months in office.
Excerpts:
Kosofe Post (KP): Some residents have commended the administration’s performance. What’s your take on his leadership?
Prince Debo Adesina (PDA): People praising the government might only think of their self-gain. Ogunlewe, having switched from PDP to APC, is more about personal interests than governance. I challenge him to disclose his administration’s expenditures; we want to see his scorecard.
KP: What do you mean by reckless spending?
PDA: No response.
SEE: Outrage over Extravagant Parties: Council Officials Imposing Costly ‘Aso Ebi’ Uniforms
KP: Recently, the Kosofe Local Government Chairman presented the year 2024 fiscal budget to the council legislators. What’s your take on the proposed budget?
PDA: Speaking on the Local Government 2024 Budget, after I read it in the news, looking at the way it was even presented, they couldn’t organize the presentation of the 2024 budget even in Kosofe. It had to move to other local governments to launch it, showing me he was just putting figures together for largesse. With a budget of over 4 billion for 2024 in Kosofe, an area with less than one million people, it raises concerns. As Kosofe is one of the 20 Local Government areas recognized by the federal government, I know there are other LCDAs where two more LCDAs were added by the current president while he was Lagos State Governor.
So, in my research, I realized that Kosofe’s IGR is even around 130 million. If your IGR is lower than your Expenditure, that means you are only trying to see allocation coming from the Federal. So, you will be able to siphon the largesse. You are just putting figures to largesse because they are doing nothing. As I have mentioned earlier, an audit will be a way of challenging the local government chairman. I know it has never been done before, but we are going to do it.
Some of the team of people in the diaspora are now looking into how we can effect good governance back home because we believe Ile ni Abosi Oko. By living abroad for more than two to three decades, we have to come back home one day. You cannot come back home one day and live with the people; they will expect from you. But if there’s good management of people’s money by a good manager, you will not be hidden away from your people. You will be able to work around and be very happy to share your wealth of experience abroad.
Therefore, the 2024 proposed budget, we need to scrutinize it. I have seen some duplications in terms of people working in the Local Government. I want to know how many ghost workers we have and how many real workers we have in that place, how many political appointees among the people are working in the local government, and what is their role. We need to start auditing and we need to check the dossier of most of the workers there, how they are getting paid; are they getting paid through brown envelopes or Gbana Must go bag or through their bank account. We need to investigate.
It’s going to be a serious game this time around. The coalition of all political parties must have something to fight on. We cannot continue to allow some miscreants because they are in power or influenced by one Godfather, or maybe their father is influential; all those must stop. We want to see the son of nobody become somebody. We are not perturbed with whatever risk we are going to take to challenge these guys. If they have thugs, we have God. If they have power, we are going to quench their power by the power of God and the power of the people.
This time around, the local government election that’s going to take place will not be the one they write results. This one will be something that will be well monitored, and Kosofe is a case study. So, the 2024 budget, even Surulere that is almost 2 million people, they have less budget to be spent. The issue is that Chairman Ogunlewe believes with his height he can just put numbers and figures for him to sustain his look or maintain his decent dressing or his habits. No, not with people’s money. He should leave power and go back to his chamber if he has one and work hard and leave politics for people who know how to do and how to make good governance. There are a lot of roads that are very bad across Kosofe Local Government even if they are state roads; you can lobby the State to say please my people are complaining. If the money to repair the road is 1 million naira, we are ready to put 200,000 to get it fixed. You push the state, Governor. Fortunately for him, he’s in the same political party; it shouldn’t be a hard.