APPRAISING DR. SHARAFADEEN ALLI’S LECTURE ON THE PROMISE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY AT OAU, ILE-IFE: A PROSE FOR OYO 2027 //By Aderogba Adebayo Taofik, mni

In a decisive articulation of his governance philosophy, Oyo APC gubernatorial candidate Dr. Sharafadeen Alli has pledged to entrench full local government autonomy if elected in 2027. He describes the promise not as a mere political concession, but as the cornerstone of a restructured Oyo State where power, resources, and responsibility are devolved to the level closest to the people.

Speaking as a guest lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Oyo APC gubernatorial candidate Dr. Sharafadeen Alli made a firm commitment to entrench full local government autonomy across Oyo State if elected in 2027.

Addressing an audience of academics, students, and policy thinkers, Dr. Alli framed the promise within the broader discourse on federalism, development, and democratic accountability. He argued that the persistent underdevelopment at the grassroots is not due to a lack of resources, but to a structural defect: the emasculation of the third tier of government.

The Benefits, as Articulated at OAU

The benefits derivable from this commitment are both structural and human. First, fiscal autonomy would liberate the 33 local governments and 35 LCDAs in Oyo from the stranglehold of state-controlled joint accounts. Councils would gain direct access to statutory allocations, enabling them to plan, budget, and execute projects without avoidable delays. This translates into faster grading of rural roads in Ibarapa, functional primary health centres in Oke-Ogun, and timely payment of teachers and sanitation workers across Ibadan.

Dr. Alli contended that fiscal autonomy — the direct disbursement of statutory allocations to LGAs and LCDAs — would end the delays and distortions of the joint account system. Councils in Ibarapa, Oke-Ogun, Ogbomoso, and across Ibadan would be able to appropriate funds, initiate projects, and respond to emergencies without awaiting approval from the state capital.

Second, administrative autonomy would restore the original intent of the third tier of government as envisioned by the Nigeria 1999 Constitution as amended. Elected chairmen and councilors would be accountable directly to their constituents, not to a distant state bureaucracy. This proximity compels responsiveness. When a borehole fails in Oriire or a market collapses in Ogbomoso, the people will know exactly who to hold responsible, and that official will have both the mandate and the means to act. When elected officials accountable directly to their wards and communities, governance becomes immediate and visible. A failed primary health centre or impassable rural road would no longer be lost in bureaucratic abstraction, but traced to a specific council with both the mandate and the resources to act.

Third, autonomy would unlock local economic potential, catalyze grassroots development and internal revenue generation. Freed from over-centralization, local governments are empowered to legislate and mobilize internal revenue, and can tailor economic policies to their comparative advantages — agriculture in Saki, agro-processing in Eruwa, commerce in Ibadan. With the power to legislate on local levies and partner with investors, councils become engines of job creation and reducing rural-urban migration rather than been a mere extensions of the state secretariat.

Implications for Good Governance in Oyo 2027

The implications for good governance in Oyo State come 2027 are profound. At OAU, Dr. Alli linked autonomy to three imperatives of good governance: transparency, responsiveness, and participation. Budgets and procurements done at the local level are easier for citizens to scrutinize. Autonomy institutionalizes transparency. Budgets are published at the council level, procurement done locally, and projects monitored by communities reduce the opacity that has long encumbered grassroots administration. Proximity reduces the distance between the governed and the governor, it also deepens democracy and civic engagement. Voter apathy declines when citizens see that their vote at the local level determines the quality of drainages, classrooms, and clinics in their immediate environment.

He also described the reform as a test of true federalism. It strengthens federalism in practice “A state that centralizes power at Agodi cannot credibly demand devolution from Abuja,” he noted. By respecting its LGAs, Oyo would model the cooperative federalism it seeks at the national level. This alignment between principle and practice enhances Oyo’s moral authority and administrative coherence.

Dr. Alli frames the reform as both ethical and strategic: ethical, because self-government is a right; strategic, because a state cannot develop when its base is weak. 

Concluding his lecture, Dr. Alli submitted that autonomy is not a gift to council chairmen, but a right of the people.                                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                               _“In 2027, we must take governance out of the secretariat and return it to the town hall, the market, and the classroom, we will build an Oyo where governance does not stop at the State Secretariat in Agodi,” he asserts. “It must live in every ward, every town hall, every community. Autonomy is how we get there. That is how we build an Oyo State that works for everyone”._

In essence, the promise is a wager on decentralization as the surest path to efficiency, accountability, and inclusive growth — a wager that positions Oyo State to lead by example in Nigeria’s next phase of governance.

The lecture was received as a clear policy statement, positioning local government autonomy as a central pillar of Dr. Alli’s 2027 governance agenda for Oyo State.

About the Author: Comrade Adebayo Taofik Aderogba, mni, is a unionist in the food, beverage, and tobacco industry, with professional expertise in logistics and supply chains. He is also a policy research and public affairs analyst, an advocate for good governance, and a chieftain of the Oyo APC. He writes from Ward 12, Ibadan North Federal Constituency, Oyo State, Nigeria.