THE CDA AND CDC IN CLEAR PICTURES 

Words: Lekan Lawal, Onus Obinyan

I am Solomon Olatunji Jejelola, the Community Development Committee (CDC) Chairman of Ikosi-Isheri and also the Community Development Association (CDA) Chairman of Ketu central. I retired as a Lecturer from Yaba College of Technology, from the School of Art and Printing. I lectured Printing Technology. I retired in 1994. After my retirement, I looked round to see that issues that affect the community are very essential and should be taken seriously, and I cherished that right from Shomolu. Anytime I am chanced from the College, I go there to listen to discussions and see what their achievements are. There, I met Kayode Badmus, a student of Yaba Technical Institute. Also there was Papa Dele Okunwa from Ketu here. So, after our separation from Shomolu, when we were no longer under them, we formed our own CDA and it has become big today.

It was in 1995 that I registered our CDA, that is Ketu-Central CDA under Shomolu, but it was not Ketu- Central that we registered then. The name then was Shobalaje, but we realized we had to link it with the environment and arrived at the name, Ketu-Central CDA. My interest in the formation of the CDA stems from the fact that it is the only way that we can meet and relate with the Government on the community’s needs. With this body representing the area, Government listens to us.

When we started, we were many, we had our officers, Alhaji Sabitu Lawal was the first Treasurer, and Oyesanya was our first Secretary. My house, here, served as our office and where we held our monthly meetings. Now, I am looking for somebody to bear the mantle of Chairman. Alaya happened to be one of the Ex-officio members, alongside one man with tribal marks and Baba Chief Oladele. We held meetings together. Late Alhaji Fasasi and Baba Jinadu attended our meetings too. Baba Samson was my Vice-Chairman. Every three years, we hold elections and Officers are either returned or replaced with other members.The CDC officers are constituted by CDA Chairmen and I was elected as Chairman of the CDC amongst all CDA Chairmen in Ikosi-Isheri. The first Chairman of CDC Ikosi-Isheri is Chief Oladipupo, who comes from the Shangisha CDA. I stepped in as Chairman after his tenure. In November, the CDC-CDA Day will hold at the Ikeja Police Ground. There the Governor will dissolve the house and another election will hold.

The journey so far has been good, because we have being able to achieve many things for our community, for Ketu-Central CDA in particular. We succeeded in getting Balogun Oyero Street tarred after much writing and appeals. This happened at the national meeting in Ikeja in 2015, when Governor Ambode approved the project for Balogun Oyero and Adebimpe streets as the two roads to be developed in Ikosi-Isheri LCDA. We also pressurized and got pipe borne water to the community, the same happened in regards to electricity when after much writing and appeals we got a new transformer. Though It has being on the ground there, uninstalled for three years, so we are still dependent on the old Transformer.

What we need mostly are roads, though we are happy that our Governor has a listening ear and is ready to work. He has marked another five roads for development in this community. Another need is in the area of security.The Mile 12 area especially. The truth is that if Government evicts everybody there, it is still people that will come to stay there, not animals. Reality is that you cannot predict any human being’s character. We need to get the Yoruba, Ibo and Hausa communities’ elders to sit down at a serious meeting to caution the youths in the area, to avoid clashes, and destruction of properties and lives. We have being living together for many years, so why these clashes are happening baffles me.Also, the Nigeria Police Force and its Officers in this area have to be sanitized so that they can do their job effectively.The Policemen must be friendly and they have to listen to us when we advise them, instead they display arrogance and irrationality in the way they carry out their duties and in their relations with the community. When you report cases, incidents or criminal individuals to the Police and it does nothing, naturally, you will lose interest in further relations. Also when reports are made in strict confidence and from out of the blue the Police reveals who is behind the report that led to the apprehension of criminals, they endanger our lives and the automatic reaction borne of survival instinct is that people will prefer to keep their mouths shut, rather than divulge information to the Police. The Patrol teams covering this community do their jobs half-heartedly too.

When we started, things were going on well, people attended meetings regularly. There was always a number of people that followed me. Unfortunately, some people think that we share money in the association, as they do in politics. They come to our meetings expectant and when they see that there is nothing like money been shared, they back out. A lot of people prefer to attend political meetings, because of what they feel they will get immediately. The truth is that everybody is a Politician, but the way we practice it is where the difference lies. Some play politics for money, while we at the CDA do not. Now, our meetings are attended by people who know what the association is really about. One thing I am sure about is that the government is ready to listen and help the community via the association.

What motivates me is the interest of my people. The collective interest of the people comes first. Also, I don’t want to hear that government said this and they don’t hear it in our community here.So, if I don’t attend the state meeting at Alausa, I won’t know what is discussed there. In the area of security, I am the one that will be asked questions at the state level. Most especially in relation to street gates and the attendant problems. Sometime ago, a pregnant woman went into labour, in the rush to the hospital, they met a locked gate, it was right at the gate that she gave birth. The report got to the state and the Taskforce officers came and uprooted the gate. When they called me from Alausa, I told them that I did not hear about it. If any gate is uprooted, it should be carried away and if the street wants to mount a gate then they should be ready to comply with the directives of the government.

When this D.P.O. told me that they are still having some gates like that, I told him to list all the gates not under control that disturb him and his officers when they patrol and I will tender it at the Secretariat which will investigate and take action.

My fear is that all our people think is that everything is money, money, money.It is necessary for a community to have a project, because we cannot always have everything. There must always be that thing the community lacks and when we want to have it, we have to go through ourselves. And that is why the constitution says that 40% of the budget for projects to be done in any community must be raised by the community itself and the government raises 60%.So, as it is, we do not leave everything to the government.

No, I do not have regrets, because I know that the problem we face is lack of understanding. As I said earlier, a lot of our people think that we share money in the CDA and CDC. They also expect to be served food and drinks, but it does not happen in these associations like that. The truth is that if meetings do not hold, how do we contribute money? When we started, we contributed money regularly. There were occasions where I had to donate a thousand Naira at meetings. When this people with the wrong expectations see that our meetings are not about wining and dining, they stop coming. Even some Landlords don’t care, forgetting that they are automatically and officially CDA members. At the Landlords association, they collect money, the same goes for the Elders forum, and Senior citizens as well, which I just started.We contribute there as well…but call them for CDA meetings, they won’t come, forgetting that it is through the CDA that the government knows what goes on in the community and the variant needs of the community.Unfortunately, it does not occur to our people that the CDA is an association that is properly registered with the Local government council and the state.The Senior Citizens Association is registered, but the Landlords Association is not registered.With the functions of the CDA, it is baffling that our people do not know the value of the association. Every CDA in the state must have a bank account, from which community development expenses are deducted.We opened our account with twenty thousand Naira (N20, 000), but for three years, we did not operate the account. So, when we had to do a transaction on it, we were told the account was dormant. We had to revive it, by writing and following the Bank’s directives.I implore more people to attend our meetings so, that the Landlords and youths of the area will know what is going on.For example, the state’s waste disposal outfit, LAWMA, were at the CDC meeting made up of fifty seven (57) of us Chairmen in Alausa. They promised to improve their services to the communities.Government is making use of us positively, to know the right things to do for the communities from the source…and we, the CDA and CDC are the source. We have the CDC representatives meeting every month, which is funded by the Chairman of the Council. They provide us with food and drinks. The representatives, three from each CDA, are made up of the Chairmen, the Secretaries and Treasurers.There we discuss issues concerning the different CDAs and whatever information we get from the state. If anything is wrong with any CDA under us, we call the attention of the Council Chairman concerned to it. There was a case brought by some market women, who were being molested and extorted by Neighbourhood Watch officers.We waded in, and got the numbers of the accused officers, which we forwarded to the Chairman of the zone, because we don’t know who sends them to extort these women and where they take the money to. Our functions in the CDA and CDC are diverse and of the utmost importance to our communities.