The governor of Osun State, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, has declared that his administration will stop “all unlawful and unreasonable deductions” from local government council funds in the state with a view to repositioning the councils to provide effective municipal governance.
Aregbesola made the declaration in Osogbo, the state capital at the flagging off of the 4th World Summit of Mayors International Conference, being hosted by the state government with the theme, “Global Engagement Of Local Leadership For Universal Progress”, saying that the deductions has created a serious problem for the council areas to perform their basic functions to the people at the grassroots.
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According to him, the local government council area would play major roles in the developmental programme of his administration, which, according to him, would bring succour to the lives of the people at the grassroots.
While frowning at how local government council areas were being forcefully committed to finance state projects by the state government, Aregbesola said that such practices would automatically prevent the councils’ administrators from having any people-oriented project to showcase as an achievement towards the development of the people in their respective area.
He said: “Councils have become cash cows as council funds are always within reach. State governments commit council funds for all kinds of projects and at the end of the day, there is little or nothing left for them to embark on anything tangible in their domain”.
“Some council has been so impoverished by their governors that they had to borrow in order to pay salaries. If there must be leadership and responsibility at the local government, all these obnoxious practices must stop”.
