A Chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Mr Akeem Agbaje, has blamed the persistent cries of marginalisation by some ethnic groups and communities across the country on lack of broad-based development in those communities.
By Emmanuel Oloniruha
A Chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, Mr Akeem Agbaje, has blamed the persistent cries of marginalisation by some ethnic groups and communities across the country on lack of broad-based development in those communities.
Agbaje stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja, in reaction to the proposal for creation of additional 31 states in the country.
“At the height of neglecting development is the cry of marginalisation by the people,’’ he said.
According him, Nigeria will begin to address the problem of marginalisation when leaders in positions of authority are “development-focused’’ in their programmes and policies
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Agbaje, a former Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ibadan Branch, also said that creation of additional states would neither be sustainable nor solve the problem of marginalisation in virtually all the states of the federation.
“The idea or proposal for creation of additional states does not make sense and it is not viable.
“How many of the exiting states are viable or able to sustain themselves? How has state creation engendered development apart from the state capitals?
“In every state, you will always find people complaining of marginalisation. In Oyo State, for instance, you will see people complaining of marginalisation, the same problem also persists everywhere, even in the Federal Capital Territory.
“The problem is lack of development. Development should be broad-based, which we are still lacking.
“There is no sector in Nigeria that is well catered for apart from road. Even at that, we do not apply wisdom in execution of most of the road projects,’’ he said.
The APC chieftain cited situations where state governors abandoned critical roads and embarked on construction of those with less economic values for political, ethnic and other selfish reasons, saying this would boost development.
According to him, in an organised society, authorities consider the level of traffic, how critical a road is to the economy and development of an area before embarking on construction of such road.
“When you are talking of marginalisation, the most tenable one is in the area of appointments, which remain a national problem.
“When a political leader is from a certain ethnic group, you observe that his appointments will be dominated by the same ethnic group. Will state creation solve that? Certainly No.
“We can only solve the problem of marginalisation if we are development-focused,’’ he said.
As a panacea to the issue of maginalisation, Agbaje advised leaders to prioritise their programmes and policies I line with the peculiar needs of their people.
“If the peculiar needs of a community or an ethnic group are met, they would not complain of marginalisation.
“Development is the easiest thing to do by identifying the critical needs of the people in certain areas,” he said.
The legal practitioner said that though certain needs, such as education, healthcare and transportation, were common to all communities, others were peculiar to certain communities.
“What a good leader does is to identity such needs and work toward actualising them. That is how to address marginalisation,’’ he said.
Agbaje also stressed the need for decentralising some administrative processes to bring government closer to the people, particularly at the grassroots.
“There is the need to decentralise administrative processes so that people in certain areas can be taking care of. Government should be brought closer to the people,’’ he said.
Asked if the creation of Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) could engender development at the grassroots, Agbaje said that it might not work, as local government funds in some states were being mismanaged. (NAN)
 in Oyo State, Mr Akeem Agbaje, has blamed the persistent cries of marginalisation){kind=link}