Kunle Adelabu
Hon. Sulaimon Kazeem Olanrewaju, Chairman of Ikorodu West Local Council Development Area (LCDA) in Ikorodu Division of Lagos State, Southwest, Nigeria, has said that the purchase of 17 Lexus Jeep as official vehicles, is his way of taking care of the elected and appointed political functionaries in the council.
He said that it is through encouragement and motivation that they can be able to assist him in delivering on his mandate to the people of the council.
The Council Chairman, who spoke with THE IMPACT was reacting to insinuations in some quarters that his action has put enormous pressure on the other five councils in the Division to either step up or buy officials vehicles in the same category for their functionaries.
Hon. Sulaimon, who said that he has been executing more projects through bank financing, also added that his administration has projects all over the council for the masses to enjoy.
“This is my own way of taking care of my people and those in other council can take care of their people whichever way they want”, Hon. Sulaimon declared.
“I am not putting anybody under any pressure. This is the way I want to run my own council and others too can run theirs in whatever way they like.
“I have projects going on across the council which no one can deny and that is what I was elected to do and which I am delivering upon”.
He said that he has been delivering on his electoral promises to the people and making those working with him happy to prevent crisis and encourage them to focus on the job he was elected to do.
“One of the things causing crisis in our councils is failure on the part of Council Chairmen in fulfilling electoral promises to the electorate”, he said.
“In order for us to have less crisis and focus more on the job that we were elected to do, it is important that we should always fulfill our promises and that is what I am doing in Ikorodu West LCDA”.
While admitting that there is paucity of funds across councils, Hon. Sulaimon, who was a former Vice Chairman of the Council and a chartered account, said that he has executed projects and purchased official vehicles through bank financing.
“If we are to look into our finances, no council in Ikorodu Division, even in Lagos State, would be able to buy official cars for its functionaries or carry out any project due to paucity of funds, but can we then fold our arms and do nothing?”, he asked.
“We bought our cars through financing by bank and they are to deduct the money from our incomes.
“We have also been financing other projects through same process and we have projects all over our council.
“I have N100million road project which is the total reconstruction of Liberty Road in Ipakodo and another project worth N60million which is Fola Ahmed in Owutu which we are going to interlocked”, he said.
“If we do not do our projects with debt, how then do we fulfill our promises to our people?
“It is also important to state that we are also trying to increase out Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and we are seriously working on it.
“And to achieve this, we need our team to be up and doing. It is our responsibility to motivate and encourage our team by providing good working conditions for them. Only after that we can put them to task to deliver.
“We are also planning to renovate the council secretariat that we inherited. There are no more chairs and tables. They have been damaged”, he said.
Aside the two road projects mentioned above, Hon. Sulaimon has, within one year of assumption of office, fully rehabilitated Apena Jimbo Street, Olayinka Jimbo Street, David Crescent, Construction of open drainage at Akinreti Street Ogolonto and Refurbishment of Consulting/Laboratory rooms at Ipakodo health centre.
There is also the ongoing refurbishment of the council secretariat and ongoing construction of new chairman’s office.
He has also taken over a property of the Council at the Noah/Olayinka Jimbo junction, Ipakodo, which used to be a dump site, public toilet and criminal haven and now redeveloping it into a modern toilet and office complex.
