Osun State governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, on Saturday contended that local government councils remain the creation of state government, saying his position over the contentious issue of granting autonomy to local government would not change.
Speaking through his director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy, Mr Semiu Okanlawon, the governor said granting autonomy to the local government in the country by the National Assembly constitutes an aberration that negates the principle of federalism.
He insisted that local governments are under absolute control and ambience of states, and that the only organ of the state empowered by the constitution to make laws for them is the state House of Assembly.
Reacting over the issue yesterday, Aregbesola said that “because of their frustration to some aspect of administration, some people are equally making mistake on and the correction is that a federation has two tiers of government. There cannot be three tiers in a federation. The moment you have three tiers, you no longer have a federation.”
He noted that it is not by assaulting the fundamental principle of federalism that the challenges and weakness being faced by the administration of local governments can be corrected.
When contacted, the chairman, Osun State House of Assembly on Information and Strategy, Hon Bosun Oyintiloye said “the position of the legislature over the granting of autonomy to local government by the Senate can only be obtained after getting the opinion of the Speaker, Hon Najeem Salaam and the Majority Leader of the House, who attended the constitutional amendment process in Abuja.
However, calls put through to the mobile phone of the Speaker rang out without a response, neither did he reply text message forwarded to him by our correspondent.
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