LG Election: No Fix Date Yet-Osun Govt

Contrary to the speculations peddling around on the fixed date for local government election in Osun State,  the government has said, there was no any schedule for elections into local government and Local Councils Development Area in December as being reported by some online media.

The state commissioner for local government and chieftaincy affairs, Mr Kolapo Alimi who stated this in a chat with journalists said the state independent electoral commission would give ninety days notification as stipulated by the constitution before the conduct of elections into local government.

Alimi noted that there was possibility of conducting elections into the councils by the end of January next year as the pending issues delaying the exercise had been resolved by the supreme court.

He noted that government was key in putting democratically elected officers into the state local councils to institutionalize Democratic governance at the grassroot level in the state.

The commissioner hinted that the adoption of parliamentary system by the present administration in the state was to reduce cost of governance at the local government level, saying the step became imperative due to the present economic reality in the state.

Alimi submitted that parliamentary system was the best way to solve the problem of over bloated political appointees at the grassroot areas to change face of governance in the state.

Speaking on the proposed local government autonomy, the commissioner said there was no any form of autonomy that was better than the present arrangement which give rooms for equity, justice and fairness to all councils irrespective of their allocations.

He posited that with full autonomy some councils in the urban cities would not be able to meet their statutory obligations of paying primary schools teachers due to the size of schools in the areas.
He maintained that the current monthly allocations of local government in the state could not meet the payment of local government workers salaries let alone investing  in infrastructural facilities.

Alimi further argued that local government needed supervision to guarantee good governance in the local government areas and to entrench true federalism in the state.

The commissioner who urged people of the state to always support the present administration in the state in its quest to change the face of the state, attributed the current challenges facing the state to global economic reality.