AKURE — DR. Bode Olajumoke, a chieftain and member of the Board of Trustee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has recommended peoples parliament for state governors across the country as a way of carrying along the electorate in governance.
The party chieftain was speaking at Ifon in Ose Local Government Area of Ondo State during the peoples parliament platform initiated by Governor Olusegun Agagu to go round all the council areas to know the plight of the grassroot people and their feelings about government policies and programmes.
Dr. Olajumoke, who pointed out that communication is very vital in governance, said that government will be able to get a feed back on the impact of the policies of government on those that elected them into office.
A situation whereby policies and programmes are forced down the throat of the people without any opportunity of gauging their feelings would not yield the expected result and may be misinterpreted.
According to him, the people's contribution, criticism and commendation are needed by government to either proceed with the programme or policy or to amend to better the lot of the generality of the people.
Dr. Olajumoke who commended Dr. Agagu for initiating the parliament therefore, urged other governors to consider it so that the dividends of democracy would not only be seen as being delivered to the people but that they are carried along by government.
Speaking at the occasion, the governor highlighted the achievement of his administration in the last 16 months and promised that better days were ahead.
Dr. Agagu who responded to the clamour for the creation of additional Local Government Councils in the state however, gave some conditions which included an evidence that such councils would be fiscally independent of the state government in the area of capital and recurrent expenditure.
The governor told the crowd on the occasion that the state government was presently over-burdened and that assuming additional responsibilities might slow down the pace of development in the state.
Earlier, the chairman of the Council, Hon. Dennis Alonge-Niyi said that forty projects were executed between July last year and April this year.
Hon. Alonge-Niyi said that the council had been marginalized by past administration in the state, adding that ecological problems had caused damages worth millions of naira.
He therefore, appealed to the governor to rehabilitate the Oruju / Owani water works and to construct a bridge over Ose river to link Edo State through Okeluse - Ogbese to Okada so as to ease transportation of farm produce and other materials and that the Ute - Owo road, Oba -Afo - Idoani - Imeri road should be constructed by the state government.
