The Crippled Third Tier: Why Ajimobi’s Caretaker Model Outperformed Makinde’s Elected Chairmen | Alao Adeola

For those who followed governance in Oyo State with an open mind, the ongoing narrative around local government autonomy and grassroots development deserves a more honest and dispassionate interrogation. The facts on the ground today present a painful irony that cannot be glossed over by media hype and propaganda.

It is a matter of public record that the late Senator Abiola Ajimobi, for a major part of his eight-year administration, governed the local government councils through caretaker chairmen. That model was criticised at the time by the opposition as undemocratic and unconstitutional. Yet, history and evidence are now proving that under that much-maligned caretaker system, the local governments in Oyo State witnessed more visible, tangible and people-oriented development than what we have endured under Governor Seyi Makinde’s purported elected chairmen since his first term in 2019.

Under Ajimobi, even with appointed chairmen, one could point to projects in every local government. Roads were graded and rehabilitated, primary health centres were functional and stocked, primary schools received attention, markets were built and maintained, and the local councils had a presence in the lives of the people. The chairmen, though not elected, were empowered, funded and supervised to deliver. They were accessible and they performed.

What do we have today under Governor Makinde’s administration, which prides itself on conducting local government elections? We have a third tier that has been completely crippled, rendered impotent and left wallowing in abject underdevelopment. Since 2019, local government administration in Oyo State has been reduced to a mere appendage of the Governor’s office in Agodi. Allocation that comes from the federation account for the 33 local governments is centrally controlled, and what trickles down is insufficient to even pay salaries, let alone execute projects.

Go across the state today, from Ibadanland to Ogbomosoland, from Oke-Ogun to Ibarapaland and Oyo town, the story is the same. The local roads that Ajimobi’s caretaker chairmen used to grade every quarter have become death traps. The primary health centres are mere consulting clinics without drugs. Public primary schools are dilapidated. Our markets are in ruins. There is no single capital project that any local government chairman in this state can boldly claim as his administration’s achievement in six years. It is a monumental failure of grassroots governance.

The danger of this development is grave and multifaceted.

Firstly, the essence of local government as the government closest to the people has been defeated. The people have been exposed to untold hardship because governance no longer reaches their doorsteps. The security architecture at the grassroots, which relies on local councils, has collapsed.

Secondly, we have inadvertently turned our elected officials at the local level into enemies of the people. The chairmen, vice-chairmen, councillors, supervisory councillors, Special Assistants and other appointees who were celebrated when they were elected are now being abused and cursed daily in their various wards. This is not because they are inherently wicked or lazy, but because they have been stripped of all capacity to perform. They cannot fix a culvert, they cannot assist a stranded student, they cannot support a widow, because they have no funds. They were elected to be leaders, but they have been reduced to mere salary earners waiting for handouts from the state. They have become political liabilities rather than assets, and the people are justifiably angry. I call that suffering and smiling.

Thirdly, it has killed political participation and ambition at the grassroots. Why would any serious-minded person contest to be a councillor when he knows he will spend three years without a single project to his name? We are breeding a generation of leaders who know nothing about governance except to answer “His Excellency” in Ibadan.

The Makinde administration must come to terms with this reality. Conducting elections is not democracy if you do not allow those elected to govern. Appointing chairmen is not the sin; crippling the institution and starving it of funds is the real sin against the people.

For over seven years, the local governments have not worked in Oyo State. Markets, roads, health and agriculture have suffered. The people have been failed.

It is on this note that Governor Seyi Makinde owes all Oyo State indigenes an unreserved apology for failing them at the grassroots. He must appeal to the people for crippling the only government that truly belongs to them.