- Read About How New Osun Parliamentarians Were Inaugurated By Aregbesola
Rt.Hon. Najeem Salam, the Speaker of the Osun House of Assembly, has been speaking to defend the recently held local government election in the state.
He submitted that the Governor of the state, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has violated no section of the Nigerian Constitution through the conduct of the local government parliamentary elections.
This is just as Governor Rauf Aregbesola also noted that there is no where in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where It was stated that the local government administration must be run through the executive or parliamentary system of government.
The speaker of the House of Assembly stated this on during the swearing-in ceremony of the 389 Councillors recently elected through an election conducted by the Osun Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC).
Hon. Salaam stated that the parliamentary system of government is best for a democracy like Nigeria, explaining that there is no way the system negates the law of federal republic of Nigeria.
He said every step the Osun government took leading to the elections of the Councillors are all under the dictates of the Nigerian Constitution, stressing that the beauty of the system at the local government level is that it will empower the Councillors to choose their chairman and other principal officers themselves.
The speaker however explained that the system calls for a lot intelligence and loyalty on the part of the players because of the fact that powers are not absolutely vested in the hands of an individual.
According to the speaker, “whoever understands the true meaning of democracy in Osun and Nigeria will know that this is indeed another mile stone under the leadership of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
“I want to tell you emphatically that this is the best form of government that can ever be practised anywhere in the world as it will bring government much more closer to the people.
“I am particularly pleased that everything that led to the conduct of the elections and the parliamentary system of government that will be run at our local government level in Osun has not in any way violated the constitution of Nigeria, we are still within the ambit of the law.
“The parliamentary system of government is good because powers are not vested in the hands of one individual, our governor means well for the people of Osun that’s why he has made us toe this line.
“This goes a long way to tell you that our governor is a true lover of democracy and he is not self centered, the parliamentary system of government is democracy in its true form and it takes intelligent, disciplined, descent and loyal people to practice it”. The speaker emphasized.
Delivering an address titled: “A New Dawn In Democratic Representation” Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said what he has done is simply listening to the yearning of the Osun people in terms of choosing their grassroots representatives themselves.‎
‎He said the government has only acceded to the demand of Osun people through the memorandum of 2012, noting that there can not be an issue as to the acceptability of the parliamentary system of government at the local level by the people of the state.
He explained that the parliamentary system of government is far better than the executive because the later has absolute powers vested in the hands of one individual which could make the leader in such circumstance to be an authoritarian leader.
Ogbeni Aregbesola who expressed delight at seeing a democratically elected government return to the local areas stated that the system of government by democratically elected people is well established in the constitution of the country leaving no room for ambiguity.
He said, “There have been genuine concern as well as malicious opposition to the adoption of parliamentary system of government at the local government, when in contrast, we have the executive system at the national and state levels. Such fears and worries are unfounded.
‎”First, our decision is not against the constitution, as quoted earlier. Nowhere did it mention executive or parliamentary – only that it must be democratic – and parliamentary system is as democratic as you can ever get.
‎”You will recall that in 2012, the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria asked for memorandum on the review of the 1999 Constitution. A 15-man committee was set up in Osun under the chairmanship of Barrister Gbadegesin Adedeji to aggregate the opinion and views from the state.
“The committee held public sitting for three weeks during which members of the public, institutions, nongovernmental organisations and others made submission.
‎”In the end, it was the overwhelming wish of the people, as stated in the committee’s report, that parliamentary system of government be adopted at all levels of government. What we have done therefore is to defer to the wish of the people in their clamour for parliamentary system of government.
‎”Secondly, parliamentary system is more democratic, compared to the executive, in that the executive system tends towards dictatorship, arbitrariness and absolutism since power is concentrated in one man’s hand, with little or no check.
“Whereas, in a parliamentary system, the executive emerges from and is formed in the parliament, making the members of parliament to be members of the executive as well and the leadership of the executive to be first among equals, primus inter pares”.‎
Ogbeni Aregbesola also used the occasion to admonish the elected parliamentarians to be steadfast, honest and have the love of the people who elected them into office at heart, saying that the beauty of democracy is to deliver the dividend to the electorates.
He urged them to see themselves as change agents while putting loyalty to their party and the interest of the people on the front burner, while charging them to join the drive of the state government in revenue generation for the local government and state governments.
On environmental sanitation, the governor urged the Councillors to see themselves as the chief sanitation officers of their various local government, stressing that they should work closely with waste management agencies to clean up the environment.
“I urge you to see yourselves as change agents in your local governments, you must listen to the people who elected you. Your first task is to ensure that the environment is clean throughout your local government, I give you three weeks to clean the waste in your area.
“You must also take charge of the various markets in your communities. You will organise the people and get them to buy and sell only in the markets and eliminate any form of street trading. Street trading is primitive, dangerous, contributes to garbage accumulation and impedes road traffic. There must be no room for it again.
“Thirdly, but not less important, is revenue generation. You will galvanise all resources at your disposal to generate revenue for the government. We all take the government for granted in the past, but as we all see now, without revenue there can be no government.
“You must therefore galvanise revenue from all taxable adults and businesses within your various constituencies”.
In an address, the APC chairman in Osun, Prince Adegboyega Famodun who also noted that the parliamentary system of government will bring government more closely to the people urged the parliamentarians to obey their party at all times.
He said they should always have it at the back of their mind that it is the party that drives the system, noting that the party is now in a crucial time as elections is around the corner.
“This parliamentary system that has just been introduced at the local level is highly beneficial as it will bring the government closer to the people.
“I want to you the elected parliamentarians to know that it is the party that drives the system, so you need to always obey the directives of the party at all times”. He explained.
Packaged by Rahman Salami
