Residents of Oredo local government in Edo State said on Friday that the only project attributable to the chairman, Nosa Ehima in two tenures is a renovated primary school and a borehole that is not working.
NEXT investigation revealed that the renovated primary school has a broken gate, a football field that can pass for a swimming pool and there was nothing ‘ultramodern' about the school as indicated on the sign post.
The road Mr Ehima plies everyday to his office is pot hole riddled largely because no drainage channel was ever constructed along it.
The residents alleged his insensitivity by stating that the chairman hardly feels the effect of the bad road as he is always chauffeured to his work in a jeep.
They got a chance to speak at the Focus Group Discussion organised by the Orderly Society Trust researchers. A mixture of elderly men and women, along with some youths, were in attendance.
Baring their minds at last
Asked if they are involved in the council's activities, the residents said they have no access to the chairman. Although, he lives amongst them, they said the security at his gate turn them back anytime they seek an audience with him.
"They always say he has travelled," one of them said.
The people said a loan scheme would have been helpful for small business owners in the council. They said drainages beside the roads would have been better. It would save them from losing their homes to erosion.
"We build our house foundations high otherwise, water will just enter when rain falls," one of the participants said.
The only public water source in the local government is a borehole Mr. Ehima constructed during his first term.
"It did not work for long," an elderly man said. "We use well water for everything," he added
Between January and March this year, according to the details of local government revenue allocation from the Federal Ministry of finance, N181million was shared to the council.
There was a general agreement among the attendees that the chairman was imposed on them by the ruling party in the state. "He was picked by the PDP (Peoples Democratic Party)," they said.
When NEXT asked some of the residents why they have not protested to or petitioned the Edo state government over Mr. Ehima's failure, they regretted that there is apathy to do so for fear of persecution by the political friends of the council boss.
"Ehima is well connected in Edo politics" they said.
Too busy to talk.
Another tool the survey researchers are using is the In-depth Interview (IDI). This is an interview with a senior council official. The name is not required to protect the respondent's confidentiality.
For the three days, Abiodun Osaiyuwu, an OST field worker, visited the Oredo council secretariat to seek an official to speak to.
"I got an unfavourable audience at the secretariat," Mrs Osaiyuwu said. "The only person that was on ground that I could have even interviewed said she was travelling. She didn't even welcome me. She said, ‘I'm very busy. I don't have time.'"
She is still in the hunt; nobody wanted anything to do with her and her probing questions and the chairman was said to be too busy to talk to anybody.