Two-term Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters during the administration of ex-Governor Rauf Aregbesola, Mr. Kolapo Alimi, while commenting on the raging debate on whether or not to replace the parliamentary with presidential system in Osun council areas, explained that the system introduced by the former governor was constitutional and cost effective.
Alimi said no court in the land had declared the system unlawful, even though a case was instituted to challenge the system by the opposition party.
He explained that the immediate past government introduced the parliamentary system after a rigorous mental exercise on the issue relating to governance at the local government level in the state.
Alimi stated, “The genesis of this came when there was an agitation to create more local government areas. Then governor (Aregbesola) first commissioned some lawyers to look at it if we had the power to create a local government and the governor being a part of what happened in Lagos when LCDAs were created, he was told he had the power to create. But after the creation, he needs to compile all the necessary documents for onward transmission to the National Assembly.
“A body was actually set up under Prof. Mojeed Alabi for that purpose, but along the line, we discovered that the structure of local government at that time vis-a-vis the available resources that, if we should go ahead to create additional local government areas, without taking along with it restructuring that will ensure we cut down the cost of governance, it will amount to killing the local government system.
“It means the state government will continue to service the functionaries in both old and new local government as well as the civil servants at that level, all at the detriment of the masses.
“Another set of persons were commissioned to look at how the local government can be restructured in a bid to reduce cost of governance so as to create a local government that will be very effective.
“For the position of the law, we contacted professors of law and several Senior Advocate of Nigeria and many others and we were made to understand that by the virtue of Section 7 of the Constitution, which states that the system of democratically elected council is guaranteed and that the government of every state shall ensure its existence under a law which provides the structure, finance, composition and so on as so forth, we can make laws for the local government.
“We discovered that under that provision, the House of Assembly has the power to make law for the structure that is suitable to us and prior to that time, the governor had been an advocate for a parliamentary system of government.
“The legal opinions favoured the fact that the state could adopt the system suitable to it and the first option that came to our mind was the parliamentary system. Instead of having a chairman, vice chairman, a supervisory council, and so on, can’t we have a system where the chairman would be elected among the counselors?
“He would collect his salary, but will have an allowance added to it, same with the vice chairman and leader of the House, who will also be among the counselors. We then discovered that if we use that system and we create local government, we will save money instead of spending more, then we adopted it.
“For instance, Irepodun local government where I come from, has 11 wards. By the time Irepodun West LCDA was carved out of the LG, the mother council has 6 wards, the LCDA has 5 wards. When we were together during the presidential system, we usually have Chairman, the Vice, Secretary and 6 supervisory counsellors, and then counsellors in each of the wards which were 11 making 20 in total.
“But by the time we introduced the current system we have 17. It means despite creating local government instead of increasing the cost of governance, we have reduced it. No right thinking man will make efforts to reverse the system. Those agitating for the reversal cannot dispute the fact that the system is lawful and cost effective.”
Division among Osun Assembly lawmakers over plans to amend the LG’s law
Sources close to the state House of Assembly said the plan to amend the local government law and replace the current parliamentary system with the presidential system has divided the parliament into three camps of Oyetola, Aregbesola and non-align groups.
The Speaker of Osun State House of Assembly, Mr. Timothy Owoeye, refused to say if laws governing local government administration in the state would be amended or not, when he was asked recently.
Owoeye, while featuring on a radio programme aired by a private radio station in Osogbo monitored recently, declined comment when asked if an amendment to the LG bill was pending before the House.
The main explanation he offered, when asked about the debate on the parliamentary and presidential system in council areas in the state was that the system currently in place was legal, but could be changed if people wanted such an amendment.
But Kunle Akande, the Chairman, House Committee on Information, while also featuring on another radio programme, monitored in Osogbo, declared that Osun would go presidential in the next LG elections.
Akande, a known ally of Governor Oyetola, said the Assembly had commenced work on the bill, but added that the amendment had not been completed.
I don’t want to lie, no comment on Oyetola, Aregbesola faceoff –Basiru
The main political actors in the camps of Oyetola and Aregbesola have shielded the public from seeing the cracks in the relationship between the two men, thereby keeping the tension in the polity minimal.
But the cold war may get messier in the coming days when the party would be electing new set of executives from ward to state level.
Asked while featuring on a radio programme monitored in Osogbo on Thursday, June 11, for comments on the insinuations of rift between Oyetola and his predecessor, the Senate spokesperson and an ally of ex-governor Aregbesola, Senator Ajibola Basiru, simply said, “I will not want to lie, so I will not want to comment on that issue.
“But I believe that all stakeholders will do their best to ensure our party is not factionalised for whatever reason. That is the much I will say. I am not aligning with anybody. There is need to rethink the way our party is being run in the state.”
