Osun LG Crisis Enters New Phase As Senior Staff Become Tool of Warfare

The strategic redeployment of the Heads of Local Government Administration (HLA) by the Osun State Local Government Service Commission represents a high-stakes maneuver in the ongoing administrative warfare between Governor Ademola Adeleke’s Accord Party-led state executive and the APC-controlled local government councils.

By shifting these key administrative officers—who often serve as the bridge between state directives and local execution—the state government appears to be attempting to dismantle the internal support structures of the APC chairmen.

Sincerely, this perceived purge of "loyalist" HLAs is likely to be viewed by the Federal Government, which is also led by the APC, as an escalation of hostilities rather than a routine administrative exercise.

In a climate where the Federal Government is being accused of withholding over ₦130 billion in statutory allocations of local government areas in the state, such moves by the state government only deepen the mistrust and provide further political ammunition for the federal authorities to justify their rigid stance on the direct disbursement of funds.

The timing of this administrative shake-up is particularly precarious given the recent sociopolitical developments in the state.

By taking hostile steps to neutralize the administrative influence of the local chairmen through HLA redeployments, the Osun State Government risks reinforcing the federal narrative that the state is actively working to undermine local government autonomy. This provides the presidency with a convenient pretext to maintain the blockade on the UBA-domiciled funds, framing it as a necessary measure to protect the financial integrity of the local governments from a state executive that is perceived as being in direct conflict with the grassroots leadership.

Ultimately, the friction caused by these redeployments can heighten the political temperature in the state with the possibility of making a diplomatic resolution with the Federal Government becoming less likely.

Instead of fostering a collaborative environment to ease the hardship of Osun citizens, this administrative tug-of-war not only threatens the stability of the state but also ensures that Osun remains a focal point of constitutional friction, where the casualty is not political power, but the welfare of the ordinary worker caught in the crossfire of party supremacy.

List of the redeployed HLAs are contained in the picture above.