…pledges to revitalize LGs to become business productive
The gubernatorial candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the forthcoming September 21 governorship election in Edo State, Osarenren Derek Izedonmwen, has hailed last Thursday’s landmark ruling by the Supreme Court on the granting of financial autonomy to local governments.
He described the ruling as a significant step toward empowering local governments to manage their affairs independently, which he believes will lead to more effective governance and development at the grassroots level.
Izedonmwen stated that the ruling by the Supreme Court is in line with his manifesto for local governments to be autonomous so that they can perform their functions to the people at the grassroots, even as he vowed to revitalize the local government system in Edo State to be business productive if he becomes the governor of the state.
“What we have seen and noticed is that historically, local government, which should have been a veritable platform to transmit development to the common people and the grassroots, has been hijacked by the state government. So this new Supreme Court judgement is a welcome development because it ties in nicely with my manifesto plans,” the ADC governorship candidate said.
“Key to that manifesto plan is that if I want to have rural revitalization, development of the rural areas, which is a key issue for me because I believe that if we want to develop Edo State, the places that have the most scope for increase in productivity is the rural areas because they have been mostly ignored. And therefore, if we want to develop the rural areas, you need the local governments to be more autonomous and powerful to partake in that developmental process,” he said.
Izedonmwen said that his administration will create an Edo State guidance fund in partnership with local governments and the private sector to set up specific industries of interest in their various localities.
“So what we have in our manifesto is quite simply what I call an Edo State Guidance Fund. And in that Edo State Guidance Fund, we want to partner with the local governments and the private sector to create a fund, albeit that fund will be guided by the state towards setting specific industries of interest.
“For instance, we say, Orhiomnwon local government, they’re very big, but not as developed as the others. We, as state, would like to invest in cassava processing to ethanol, for example. So what we then do is we create a specific fund. In that fund, the state government will have a share, local government will have a share, and the rest of the share will be owned by the private sector. Then we will now hire a fund manager who will manage that fund but that fund will be guided to specifically invest in cassava processing to produce ethanol and the others for export.
“So when that fund starts bringing in returns, the returns will be split based on the amount of shareholding in that fund, and therefore will provide return on investment (ROI) for the local government. And that local government now will rely less and less on the federal allocation. What we see today is a crippled third tier of the executive, where the local government doesn’t operate as entrepreneurs. Whereas I see an entrepreneurial state, where the state itself acts like a businessman. Local government acts like a businessman. Farmers act like business. Everybody’s an entrepreneur. So the state structure at that lower level, called the local government, I want to encourage them to become entrepreneurs,” he said.
Izedonmwen commended the federal government for taking the bold step by approaching the Supreme Court which has now laid to rest the issue of financial autonomy for local governments. He urged the 36 state governors and the FCT Minister to accept the judgement in good faith for the benefit of all Nigerians.
