We Have Resolved Issues Surrounding Last LG Elections In Lagos - Abdulsobur Olawale

 

Local Government has been decsribed as the closest government to the grassroots.

Chairman of the Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Local Government and Community Affairs, Hon. Abdulsobur Olayiwola Olawale speaks on the expectations of the people from the newly sworn-in local government chairmen in the state.

How will you describe the success of your party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the last LG elections in Lagos as people believe that you won because you are the ruling party?

Contrary to the belief of the people that was not why we won all the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state. We won because our government performed and we will continue to perform. It is evidently clear that the APC is the ruling party and we have members that cut across Lagosians. Since 1999, we have been ruling and dominating the political scene of Lagos State. Consistently, we have been delivering the dividends of democracy to the people and they know this. 

Prior to the elections, there were some issues, has the party been able to resolve the issues?

We give glory to Almighty Allah, the issues have been resolved. There is no way there won't be rivalry because in some cases about 30 or 40 people wanted to be the Chairman of a local government. But we thank the sense of judgment of our leaders, the machinery they have put in place worked. Some of those who contested and were not fielded were made vice chairmen, secretaries to the local governments, and supervisory councillors. That tells you that we have an in-house problem solving mechanism. We went for the election and we have a resounding victory. Our party is the party to beat. It is not that we don't have rivalry. You and I know that our rivals are asleep because they are not organised. They are non-existent. What remain now are post-election activities. The council officials have been inaugurated, and a seminar has been conducted for them. I'm sure they are ready to work.

There are still many hurdles to cross because of the issues of selecting SLGs and Supervisor Councillors, how do you hope to resolve these?

It is when you reach the bridge that you cross it. We have problems and I told to you that we will resolve them. So all these issues would be resolved soon.

What are the things that you have been able to tell the chairmen to do on what you expect from them?

Their administrative guidelines are designed by the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs and we have looked at them. The guidelines guide the activities of the local governments. All the roles of each of the officials of the local government are spelt out there. The roles of the council manager, councillors, who are in the legislative arm, the chairman, and the vice chairman are spelt out there. We have all these clearly stated. The one that has been causing problem is the issue of the tender board. But, we have a committee on tender board. We discovered that the power of the vice chairmen to head the boards has been usurped by the local government chairmen. We discovered that this was the problem in the last dispensation and we have warned the council chairmen against this during the seminar. We have our monitoring mechanism and I believe that the incoming local government chairmen are up to date, they are people of different professional background. They will not let us down. We too will not leave them, we will continue to look at their books. The fact that you are an independent entity  does not mean that we will not look at your books.