By Boluwatife Adedokun
A civic organisation, Insight Initiative for Community and Social Development (IICSD), has accused the APC-backed local government chairmen in Osun State of operating without transparency and accountability, alleging that they have failed to disclose how public funds allocated to the councils have been spent.
The group also unveiled “Amoye,” an artificial intelligence-powered WhatsApp chatbot designed to provide citizens with easy access to information about local government activities, budgets and governance.
Explaining to journalists on Friday, the Executive Director of IICSD, Mr. Jare Tiamiyu, said the organisation had spent the last nine months implementing the second phase of the Osun Open LG project aimed at promoting openness, transparency and citizen participation in local government administration.
According to him, the initiative seeks to ensure that residents have access to information on allocations received by local governments, budget implementation and how public resources are utilised.
“In the last eight months, or about nine months now, from October till now, we have been working on the second phase of Osun Open LG. The focus of the project is to ensure that local governments in Osun State are open to the public and that people can access information on what is happening at the local government level, the funds coming in and how those funds are being spent,” he said.
Tiamiyu explained that, as part of the project, the organisation organised several engagements, including capacity-building sessions for local government chairmen on participatory budgeting and procurement processes that align with global standards of good governance.
“We trained local government chairmen on how to engage citizens while preparing their budgets and how to implement procurement processes that comply with 21st-century governance practices,” he said.
He said the organisation also developed the “Amoye” chatbot, a technology-driven platform accessible through WhatsApp, to enable residents to obtain information about local government activities from the comfort of their homes.
“We have also created Amoye. Amoye is a chatbot that gives information to people from wherever they are. It is a simple technology on WhatsApp where people can request information, even through voice notes,” he added.
Despite these interventions, Tiamiyu expressed disappointment over what he described as the poor level of accountability in the management of local government affairs during the first half of 2026.
He alleged that council officials had failed to provide details of funds received and expended despite repeated requests.
“I can say here that the way local governments have been run in the first half of 2026 has not been pleasant because there has not been transparency and there has not been accountability from the APC-elected local government officials who have access to public funds.
“When you have access to public funds, you are holding the commonwealth of everyone in that local government. The people deserve explanations. They deserve to know how much was spent and what the money was spent on,” he said.
The IICSD Executive Director further alleged that budgets presented by the APC local government chairmen were not approved by their respective legislative councils.
“The budget presented by the local government chairmen was not passed by their legislative houses. We are asking them how they arrived at the figures they are spending and under what budgetary provisions the projects they claim to have executed were funded,” he stated.
According to him, the organisation submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the councils seeking details of their finances but had yet to receive any response.
“We met them one-on-one, we wrote FOI requests to them, but unfortunately they have failed to respond. That is why we are asking the media to help demand answers from them.
“We want to know how much has been accessed from local government allocations, including both withheld and fresh allocations. We also want a breakdown of how those funds have been spent.
“We know they have paid traditional rulers and they are paying themselves salaries, which are statutory expenditures, but the public still deserves to know how much has been spent and how much remains in the accounts,” he said.
Tiamiyu also blamed local government workers for contributing to the prolonged crisis affecting council administration in the state, urging them to demonstrate professionalism and patriotism.
“We also have to blame the local government staff. They have contributed to this problem. If people are receiving salaries but are not doing their jobs, sitting in their offices waiting for closing time, then they are not serving the people.
“Patriotism should be to the Constitution, to the system and to the people, not to any political party or individual in power,” he said.
He explained that some council chairmen had attributed delays in salary payments to the refusal of council officials to process payment vouchers, particularly following adjustments arising from the new minimum wage.
“The local government chairmen have told us that salaries are delayed because officials are not releasing the necessary vouchers. They also do not have updated records following the minimum wage adjustments. We are calling on the local government staff and the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) to do the right thing.
“Local government administration has been down in Osun for about 20 months. We cannot continue this way. They must be patriotic for once,” he said.
On the sustainability of the newly launched chatbot, Tiamiyu expressed confidence that the platform would continue to function effectively, noting that the organisation enjoys the backing of international development partners.
“We can maintain it. We have international support through NYFF, and that support gives us the capacity to continue improving the platform,” he added.
