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Development beyond road construction

Sir, I like to commend Oyo State government for embarking on road construction in many local governments and newly-created LCDA in the state as revealed by the Commissioner for works, Bimbo Kolade. One objection I have to the commissioner’s, statement is that he did not clarify which tier is constructing the roads. Is it the…

Oyo town. PHOTO: Flickr

Sir, I like to commend Oyo State government for embarking on road construction in many local governments and newly-created LCDA in the state as revealed by the Commissioner for works, Bimbo Kolade.

One objection I have to the commissioner’s, statement is that he did not clarify which tier is constructing the roads. Is it the state or local government? But what he want the public to believe is that Oyo State is the one constructing the road.

Obviously, one cannot fault him because local government has been rendered prostrate by almighty governors. The allocations coming from the federation account are being spent on local governments’ behalf by the governors.

This is highly unfortunate because one person determines what is good for over five million people in the state. There is no doubt that the Abiola Ajimobi government has worked hard in terms of construction of quality roads.

Nonetheless, I want to say it categorically that development is beyond road construction. Development in the real sense of the word is increase in the productive capacity of a nation or people.

In this wise, what can help people in their quest for development is technology, whether autocentically developed, borrowed or stolen.

It is when the productive capacity of people is high that they will produce to meet local demands and for exportation to earn foreign exchange for further production.

It is when funds are available that government can embark on provision of infrastructure, security and so on and so forth. It is clear to me that development means something else to some of our leaders in Nigeria. Development efforts should be prioritize as the needs of each local government is different from another.

Local Government should be strengthened and made independent as done by the military through local government reform of 1976. So doing is the only way, the grassroots people can feel the impact of the government.
Adewuyi Adegbite

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