The activities of the Community Development Committee and Community Development Associations were recently pronounced as the fourth tier of government by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode though not backed by any law but Lagos, in its yet to be accorded Special Status has once more set the pace which hopefully many States will follow suit. This pronouncement has further created more responsibilities for the CDCs and CDAs.
In this interview with the publisher MrAbel Lazarus the CDC Chairman Igando-Ikotun LCDA; Elder Ademola Osibelowa bares his mind on some of the inherent challenges of the committees and how to deliver on expectations.
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Q: Your office as the CDC Chairman has been playing vital roles to the government especially in Lagos State what would you say informed this cooperation?
Ans: Let me start by thanking Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for his supports to the Community Development Committees and the Community Development Association, he has demonstrated true leadership by his engagement with us (CDCs/CDAs). Prior to his administration, the CDCs have been uncared-for which led to its poor performances in her duties due to lack of reasonable funding as the local governments are unable to cater for them due to their numerous challenges with funds. The governor made provision for grants for the running of CDCs.
Q: What has been the major challenge facing the CDC , the joint CDAs and CDAs especially in Igando-Ikotun LCDA?
Ans: The major challenge remains funding as we are expected to do little community projects in our capacities but this has been hampered as a result of lack of fund and the local governments are yet to recognize us as their partners rather some of them see us as their competitors. Funding is a major challenge for instance in my LCDA, we have about twenty members of the CDC and we get say fifty thousand naira once in three months as imprest with no salaries nor allowances. Fifty thousand naira is not enough to visit all the CDAs in Igando-Ikotun LCDA and series of meetings to attend both within and without, yet we are not deterred in getting the job done as often times we spend our personal monies for this course.
Q: Recently H.E Mr Akinwunmi Ambode pronounced your office as the fourth tier of government; though not backed by any law yet; what is your opinion towards this pronouncement?
Ans: The pronouncement of His Excellency as the forth tier of government is a welcome development and this has put the CDCs in pivotal position of partners to the LCDAs, though this has not been the case as the politicians see us differently owing to the provisions of the constitution that requires the office of the CDC Chairman as non-partisan, be that as it may, as good citizens and major stake holders we are ordinarily also expected to support good programs of the government. With this pronouncement it is expected that the LCDAs will recognize this and bring us closer to the table as partners and not otherwise.
Q: By this pronouncement more responsibilities have been bestowed on your office, how prepared are you in discharging these duties?
Since we are closer to the people, it beholds on us to help the LCDAs in certain areas e.g the CDCs can through her CDAs reach out to residents for the collection and remittance of local government rates and taxes, these people are in our domain and we understand them better hence the LCDAs are expected to have a harmonized bill that will be sent to them through the CDC/CDAs who will follow-up through personal engagements with the current technologies being employed like the Point of Sale (POS) system and others. These monies will be collected and remitted directly into the LCDA’s bank account while the payer can come down to the secretariat at his or her convenience to pick receipts. For these traders, it is a tedious task for them to lock their shops to go to the banks just to pay rate/taxes. Imagine someone selling food locking his/her shop for hours to go and queue. The CDCs/CDAs can relieve the LCDAs of this problem and off course there must be incentives attached to it for motivation purposes. The LCDAs should embrace us as partners.
Q: How would this pronouncement enhance your duties and what are the inherent challenges?
Ans: Yes, it means more responsibilities to us and we are embracing it and willing to deliver on them, currently the CDCs have been actively involved in the monitoring exercise of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative as we join the team of Visionscpae every night to make sure that all the surroundings are cleared.
Q: You just mentioned the Cleaner Lagos Initiative, what would you say is the challenge with this program?
Ans: The initiative is a good development but the challenge is that most of us are not sincere and that is the reason for the failure of the former program of PSP, as people who are not willing to pay to them take the opportunity to dump their wastes indiscriminately while some patronize cart pusher who will in turn dump these wastes in illegal dump site or most time into the drainages thereby multiplying the environmental challenges. In the new initiative, every home is compelled to pay the waste disposal bill along with the land use charge on annual basis hence it is foolish of anybody to still dump his/her refuse indiscriminately since he/she will still be charged at the end of the year. The initiative is gradually making progress as waste bags were distributed within the community, the size of the bag is bigger than what we are used to and is expected to contain wastes pending evacuation. This initiative also has other benefits which will further save our communities from the menace of plastic wastes as they will now be sorted out for recycling, the stress of monthly payment has also been removed and turned into annual.
Q: From our observations, most people find it very difficult to pay the monthly N500, 00 how do you think it will be easier now that it is yearly?
Ans: Naturally; humans do not like parting with their money but with the new law in place which will be enforced to the later by the state everyone will have no choice but to pay their bills even on time so as to avoid problems with government.
Q: As a tier of government how would you say your office can contribute to security, development and of course to the internally generated revenue of the LCDA and State?
Ans: We are ready to serve in any capacity to help the government, we have been advocating for communities to also help the government; for instance in Isheri and Ijegemo area, we met with the community to discuss on how their roads can get face lift and I urged them to construct gutters for the roads since the government does not have all the required resources to do all the roads same time but with the gutter done, we can mobilize for a tractor to grade the road from the LCDA which will serve as an interim measures. On Security, of course it is the duty of everybody and we have been playing our roles judiciously while like I said earlier on the IGR we can serve as a conduit pipe between the LCDA and residents through proper channels and adequate incentives.
Q: We know you as one that has passion for development of Alimosho in general what would you say has been your major achievement as the CDC Chairman of Igando-Ikotun LCDA?
And: I must start by thanking God for His grace and wisdom hitherto; when I came on board as the chairman; my major assignment was to make sure that the CDAs understand their roles, with 217 CDAs under my watch with many unresolved issues my team moved in to make sure that there is at least acceptable peace first while we embarked on reconciliations as we speak today about 86 CDAs have been resolved, and we did this because there is no way any meaningful development can come without peace. Today, we have also been able to reach the communities and their challenges by creating functional executives of every CDA and further created a Joint CDA for ease of administration.
Q: The general election is fast approaching what will be your office role?
Ans: We are currently sensitizing our people through the Joint CDA meeting where we invite INEC official Mr Bankole to educate the people and respond to observed challenges and this will continue, though the major challenge now in registration is inability of INEC providing enough machines for this exercise. We also urge INEC to co-opt the community leaders in the registration process for easier identification just like we are doing with the LASRA by issuing residents with letters confirming their residency through the CDAs and Joint CDAs to my table for endorsement for onward registrations and this has been very helpful and productive too.
