Following the total absence of human presence, official and unofficial activities at the 30 local government secretariats and Modakeke Area Office in Osun State, weeds have taken over premises of the structures, findings by THE POINT have revealed.

In many of the secretariats visited, the buildings housing different offices and halls looked unkempt as cobwebs and reptiles have fully taken possession of the structures primarily meant for administration of local government affairs in the state.

Trees and flowers that ought to have been tamed and controlled are overgrowing and distorting the aesthetics of the official premises.

Our correspondent observed dirt littered around the structures that have been under lock and keys since February 16, 2025.

In particular, at Osogbo Local Government Headquarters situated at Oke-Baale Area, a section of the wall has collapsed, thus opening the secretariat to security threats.

THE POINT had earlier reported that the Osun State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress had directed local government workers to stay at home following fears of possible breakdown of order over plan by former local government officials elected in 2022 under the platform of the All Progressives Congress to resume office.

After the February 17 council election conducted by the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke produced LG chairmen of the ruling People’s Democratic Party, the governor asked the newly elected council bosses to refrain from resuming the secretariats in order to avoid clashing with their APC counterparts who had been claiming of being reinstated by court to occupy the local offices.

However, further checks by THE POINT revealed that the local government chairmen elected in 2022 under the platform of the APC have not been staying at the secretariats, thus leaving no one to clean the premises.

Our correspondent had reported that the people of the state have been denied the services and good governance that the third tier of government should offer owing to the paralysis of activities at the council areas.

It was revealed that official activities have remained grounded in local governments following the workers’ withdrawal of service. As the local government workers have been receiving salaries without coming to work for the past three months, structures have been left to rot away.

People at the grassroots have been suffering hardship and also lacking political leadership at the local government, thus feeling shut out of the dividends that come with the third tier of governance.

The crisis to administer the local government between elected public functionaries from both parties has also impacted negatively on the commercial activities within and around the local government secretariats across the state.

The two political parties, the APC and the PDP, remained adamant about their own interpretation of existing judgements delivered at varying times by state, federal, and Courts of Appeal and laid claim to the right to govern at the third tier of government.

Visits to some local government secretariats revealed the absence of hustling and bustling that used to characterise the secretariats daily apart from weekends.

It was observed that food vendors and other traders that used to transact at the council areas have relocated to other places as the secretariats appear desolate on a daily basis.

Each of the 30 local government areas and Modakeke Area Office have reportedly lost so much in terms of internally generated revenue since the logjam as workers no longer collect taxes from traders and neither do they render services to residents who would like to have their court marriages or obtain other important official documents.

Sources claimed that the councils have lost millions of naira in about twelve weeks of the paralysis of activities.

One of the workers at the council revealed that the spillover of financial loss will surely have long-term adverse effects on the finances of local governments, adding that it may not be easy to recover the loss of the present predicament if allowed to persist.

Many indigenes that needed to collect their certificates of local government origin for admission into tertiary institutions and some for job employment opportunities have also been in a dilemma.

Community services such as clearing of gullies, sanitation and environmental monitoring for healthy living which are the core jobs of local government workers have been abandoned as workers continue to shun their offices.

THE POINT correspondent discovered that some of the council workers could no longer endure their idleness and had sought for alternative businesses to run as the impasse lasted.

In fact, some of the workers, who claimed that their conscience had been pricking them for collecting salaries without resuming duties, had threatened to mobilise their colleagues to work.

The workers who described themselves as a faction of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employee, Osun State chapter, said there was a need for them to resume work in the interest of the general public and local government administration.

The faction described the protracted withdrawal of services as the height of irresponsibility and shared wickedness, saying members of the public have been subjected to unnecessary hardship with denial of basic government services.

Under the auspices of Association of Concerned local Government Staff in Osun State, the group of employees accused the NULGE President, Nathaniel Ogungbangbe of politicizing the union and flagrantly disobeying its constitution by insisting that services be withdrawn at the third tier of government.

The state Coordinator of the NULGE faction, Adedayo Adekunle and the Secretary, Akin Adepoju, urged workers to return to work, dismissing the security threats to their life.

However, neither the aggrieved workers who asked others to resume, nor the entire workforce had been seen at council secretariats.

Some public affairs analysts including Dayo Shobowale, Fatai Tijani, and Funso Babarinde have said the crisis may linger until the court has final pronouncement on the issue.

A Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo, Osun State, has fixed June 4, 2025, to hear a suit seeking to restrain the Central Bank of Nigeria from opening accounts for chairmen elected in the October 12, 2022, local government election in Osun State.

The Osun State Attorney General, Oluwole Jimi-Bada, had approached the court seeking four reliefs that include restraining the CBN, Accountant General of the Federation and the Attorney General of the Federation from opening or maintaining accounts for the chairmen that were elected in the October 12, 2022 election, which had only candidates of the All Progressives Congress participating.

Meanwhile, Akin Adeyi, a public commentator and a chieftain of Osun APC, has posited that it is now safe to assume that Osun State is serving as a testing ground for the abolition of the Local Government system of administration in Nigeria.

According to Adeyi, the relevance of Local Government administration is diminishing, particularly in light of the three-month shutdown of local government councils in the state.

“The significance of officials and their functions has been substantially compromised as most of their tasks are now being performed either by the state or online. This raises questions about the necessity of local government if a state like Osun, whose governor, Mr. Ademola Adeleke, is a fierce opponent of local government autonomy, can operate for three months without councils.

“Adeleke, recall, was among some of the Nigerian governors who went to court to challenge the local government autonomy, despite it being part of his campaign promise to return governance to the local government, which he later reneged on,” he said.

Reacting to Adeyi’s claim, Sarafa Ibrahim, an aide to Governor Adeleke and member of the PDP, said, “This is pure mischief. The local government is not just about secretariat staff because it is more than that. Primary schools and PHC workers which are part of the local government are still working. The secretariat workers stayed away from work for their safety, which they are entitled to under the Constitution. The usurpers who are illegally occupying the councils should vacate so that the workers can be sure of their safety.”

culled from thepoint.com.ng