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With the excitement and euphoria attendant the Supreme Court judgement of today 11th July 2024 upholding the Constitutional Rights of the 774 LGAs to draw their monthly financial allocations directly payable into their respective LGAs accounts as against the current situation of such payment being made into the joint State/LGAs account is not only salutary but transformative.
The consensus of opinions since this judgement pronouncement was made centered on the anxiety and fears about the capacity and capability of the Chairpersons of LGAs to transparently and accountably utilise this fresh opportunity to prudently, judiciously, and sustainably transform their respective communities of jurisdictions with the resources received from the Federal Allocation in addition to their own Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
The Ijesa Community Development Assembly (ICDA) hereby comes up with a strategic response with which to ameliorate the fears and anxiety of our people in Ijesaland with the proposed establishment of *IJESA INDEPENDENT DEVELOPMENT MONITORS*
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES OF IIDM.
1. IIDM shall be an independent Community-Based Development Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting body.
2. IIDM shall primarily focus it's operations on the performances of each of the LGAs in Ijesaland.
3. IIDM monitoring exercises shall be conducted on a quarterly basis of three months or four monitoring exercises in one year in each of the LGAs.
4. IIDM shall work with a set of Standard Monitoring Indicators with which to periodically appraise the performances in the LGAs.
MONITORING INDICATORS
The Indicators shall include but not limited to the following:
1. Amount received from Federal Allocation within the quarter of 3 months
2. Amount of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) within the quarter of 3 months.
3. Benchmark versus performance recorded in Health Sector. For instance how many Health Centers, Doctors, Nurses, Health Workers are available. LGA population vis a vis the Mortality rate, Birth rate, including state of Medical Infrastructure.
4. Benchmark versus performance recorded in Education Sector. For instance how many primary schools, teachers, students enrollment, students examination performances, qualifications of teaching and non-teaching staff, state of educational infrastructure.
5. Benchmark versus performance recorded in Agriculture and Food Security. For instance how many community members are engaged in agriculture and agripreneurship, how many youth are trained and engaged in agricultural practices and agripreneurship, what are the values of support being given to farmers in terms of Tractor provision and farm inputs supply, what are the produce yield per season, how affordable are foods in the market, food storage and processing facilities, etc
6. Benchmark versus performance recorded in the Road Infrastructure. For instance how many kilometers of road are newly constructed and rehabilitated, how many drainages are constructed, how many new culvets and bridges are constructed, how many solar lights are installed and how many are working, etc
7. Benchmark versus performance recorded in provision of potable water supply to the communities
8. Benchmark versus performance recorded in Employment Generation. For instance what is the statistics on Youth Unemployment and Underemployment, what are the new employment opportunities created, what are the multiplier effects, how many women and vulnerable groups are empowered, and what are the outcomes of such empowerments, etc
9. Benchmark versus performance recorded in Governance, Transparency, and Accountability. For instance what are the procurement procedures in place, how participatory and competitive are such procurement systems, financial prudency, accurate and detailed reporting, openness to financial auditing and probe, etc.
10. Benchmark versus performance in Security of lives. and properties. For instance what are the crime rates, what preventive security measures are put in place and how effective are they, etc.
MEMBERSHIP & CODE OF CONDUCT OF IIDM
1. IIDM shall comprise of seven members. Each drawn from the six LGAs in Ijesaland with the seventh member coming in addition from any of the six LGAs to serve as Chairman.
2. The tenure of IIDM members shall be three years in the first instance but renewable for a maximum of another three years tenure making a total of six years.
3. The ICDA shall have the responsibility to advertise through online social platforms for prospective members, screen, and appoint.
4. The ICDA shall be responsible for the payment of operational expenses such as petrol for members vehicle during monitoring exercises, stationery, and other incidental expenses. Members shall not be entitled to any salary or allowance as this is deemed to be a selfless service to Ijesaland community.
5. IIDM shall be ready to declare their assets and liabilities to the ICDA within two weeks of acceptance of offer to serve. Members shall also declare their assets and liabilities not later than two weeks after relinquishing service to the ICDA.
6. IIDM members and their immediate family members such as spouse, children shall not be in the employment of any of the six LGAs. Neither shall such members and their family have any business relationships with any of the six LGAs during the period of service and minimum of two years after relinquishing service.
7. IIDM members and their immediate family members shall not receive any form of gratification either in cash or in kind from any worker in the employment of the six LGAs in Ijesaland.
8. IIDM members who satisfactorily perform without blemish shall have his or her name listed in IJESA HONORS BOOK to be opened by ICDA.
9. IIDM members shall be free to disengage after giving a minimum of six months notice to the ICDA.
10. IIDM members shall make a formal reporting on anyone preventing him or her from dispassionately discharging his/her duties to Ijesaland.
11. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Performance Reports shall be ready and disseminated within a maximum of two weeks or fourteen days into the beginning of the month after the quarter being reported.
12. Chairmen of LGAs shall have the right to respond to publications made by IIDM through the use of Ijesa platforms with adequate mutual respect on both parties.
Beyond providing operations support finances to the IIDM, IIDM shall function absolutely as an independent body reporting directly to the Ijesaland Community.
SUGGESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION OF CANDIDATES IN ANY SUBSEQUENT LGA CHAIRMANSHIP & COUNSELORSHIP ELECTIONS IN IJESALAND
Currently the Constitution of Nigeria does not provide for an Independent Candidate in the election of LGAs Chairmen but through the Political Parties.
Ijesaland however have a choice!
The choice is for we the members of the Community to demand that those who are interested in offering their services to serve meet the following guidelines:
1. Declare your assets and liabilities one month before election and submit same to the ICDA.
2. Give an undertaking to declare your assets and liabilities not later than one month after exiting office.
3. Give an undertaking to ICDA to publish or refer the candidates to the Code of Conduct if the disparity in the before and after cannot be satisfactorily explained.
4. Give an undertaking at least one month before the election to the ICDA of his or her subscription to abide, comply, and respect to work with IIDM in the IIDM discharge of her social responsibility to Ijesaland without any obstruction.
5. ICDA to establish another 7-man Independent Community Arbitration Body who shall be charged with the responsibility for mediating between IIDM and Chairmen of LGAs when there are issues to be explained. Membership of the Independent Community Arbitration Body shall be drawn in similar way to that of IIDM.
Suggestions are heartily welcome on how to strengthen the recommendations above in order to get us ready to enthrone good governance in the administration of all LGAs in Ijesaland.
Obokun a gbe a O!
Asiwaju Olayinka Fasuyi
The Asiwaju Of Ijesaland,
Chairman,
ICDA,
Oke Baba Okuta Villa, Ilesa.
11th July, 2024.
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