Going to Ogun House of Assembly with Equity
Dapo oke
The controversy created by the recent creation of 57 LCDAs in Ogun State by the Administration of Governor Ibikunle Amosun is still in the public court of opinions. While some are contending issues of name, some are not satisfied with the location of the LCDA administrative headquarters but of great concern is the issue of lopsidedness and imbalance as alleged by the Ogun west Senatorial district among others
In this discussion, I will be reflecting on the issue of lopsidedness and imbalance and to see whether the allegation of Ogun west people are real or imagined.
Let me through this medium call the attention of readers to the principle in 1999 constitution as regards equity and balances of state structures. It is evident that the constitution distributed the nation into 6 geopolitical zones and ensured that each zone has equal number of states (6) with the exemption of South East zone which has 5 states only. Again I want to also call our attention to the creation of Senatorial and Federal constituencies in Ogun state based on equal status of one Senator per senatorial district and the Federal constituencies of three representatives per senatorial district. These are inferences to the constitutional emphasis of equitable distribution of electoral units regardless of historical and cultural influences albeit demographic distributions.
Having said this, perhaps we shall be doing justice to the issue in perspective if questions are raised on the realisable equitable justifiable yardsticks used by the Government to arrive at the creation of the 57 LCDAs in the State. Obviously, the creation is evidently devoid of data credibility and not fair to many of the existing local government areas.
Using the Ogun state statistical data of population and land area let us now have an in-depth analysis of the creation to justify the good intention of the government or otherwise as it affect each of the existing local governments and the new LCDAs.
OGUN EAST.
Ijebu East has 2,234km2 land area with 109,321 population got 2 LCDAs
Ijebu North got 4 LCDAs with its 967km2 land area and 280,520 population.
Ijebu North E. with its population of 68,634 and land area of 118km2 was allocated 2 LCDAs
Ijebu ode of 157,161 population and 192km2 was given 2 LCDAs
Ikenne which has 144km2 land area and 119,117 population has to its credit 2 LCDAs
Odogbolu of 541km2 land area and 125,687 population was allocated 3 LCDAs
Ogun waterside with 1000km2 land area and 74,222 population has 2 LCDAs
Remo North of 199km2 land area and 59,752 population was allocated 2 LCDAs
Sagamu with total population of 255,885 population and 614km2 land area had 3 LCDAs
OGUN CENTRAL
Abeokuta N. with 808km2 land area and 198,793 population was given 4 LCDAs
Abeokuta South of 71km2 land area and 250,295 population was given 3 LCDAs
Ewekoro with 594km2 and 55,093 population has 2 LCDAs
Ifo of 521km2 land area and 539,170 population was allocated 4 LCDAs
Odeda which has 109,522 population and 1560km2 land area has the benefit of 3LCDAs
Obafemi Owode of 1410km2 land area and 235,071 population has 4 LCDAs
OGUN WEST
Adoodo/Otta of 878km2 land area and 527, 242 population was allocated 5 LCDAs.
Yewa N. with 2,089km2 land area and 183, 844 population has the benefit of 3 LCDAs
Yewa South with 629km2 land area and 168,wet population was allocated 2 LCDAs
Ipokia of 629km2 land area and 150,387 population has 3 LCDAs
Imeko-Afon with 1,711. 43km2 land area and 82,952 population has 2 LCDAs
Given this verifiable statistical data, one therefore need to move ahead to see justification for allocations of 5, 4, 3 and 2 LCDAs to the existing local government area as revealed by the originating document . We need to ask why some local council areas with higher land area and population got lesser allocation as exhibited in the above data compared to what was allocated to other Local council with lesser statistic i.e Why forinstance will some local governments with higher population and land areas got same allocation with some local governments with lesser statistics. Also, what is basis for creating more LCDAs in some Local government areas with lesser population and land area ( see the local government by local government analysis above)
These are questions begging for attention of the Ogun State House of Assembly whose constitutional role is to give final approval to the proposal submitted to it by the Executive
MY OPINION
Having undertaking the analytical summary of each local government viz a viz the demographic distribution of all the existing local government areas elect to say as follows:
1. I want to confirm that truly there are visible lopsidedness and imbalance allocation of LCDAs accross the three Senatorial districts.
2. That the there is a problem of data credibility to really explain the genuine intention of the government.
3. That the problem of population explosion in Ado odo Otta and Ifo local government areas are not adequately resolved in the creation
4. That the constitutional concept and principle of equity was completely jettisoned in the entire creation.
5. That a more accurate creation must be based on benchmark of an agreeable population I.e Excess over a multiple of 50,000 or 30, 000 population would have been very ideal as benchmark for each creation or as the house may deem it fit.
6. That the Honourable House should as a matter of credible data yardstick resolve all the grey areas in the creation inorder to restore equilibrium and public confidence.
For more information on 2006 Ogun State poplation data you can follow the link below
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ogun_State_local_government_areas_by_population
Dapo Oke fcia, is the Ajiroba of Imasayi, Yewa North.
