Kunle Adelabu
It was an historic occasion on Tuesday, February 18, 2020, when the Council Leader, Hon. Nurudeen Alimi who also doubled as the National Chairman, Councilor’s Forum in Nigeria, led other Principal officers and members of the Igbogbo/Bayeku Local Council Development Area (LCDA) Legislative Arm to successfully conduct first-ever public hearing in the history of the council.
16 Bye-laws were proposed for amendments at the hearing held at the ICT Centre of the council, Igbogbo.
Laws that the Councilors sought the public inputs for at the hearing were Naming of streets & Numbering of houses, Environmental Sanitation Bill, Market Regulations Bill, Corporate Business Jurisdiction Permit Bill, Canopy & Extension on Building Bill, Cutting of Tarred Road Bill, Parking/Control of Consumption of Alcoholic in Motor Parks & Garage, Radio & Television Licenses Bill and Control of Kiosks, Workshops and Private Lock-Up Shop Permit.
Others were Haulage (Loading & Offloading) Bill, Liquor License Bill, Food Stuffs and Regulated Premises, Identification of Body Jacket on Motorcycles/Numbering of Tricycles/Cabs, a bill to prohibit trading around the perimeter of primary schools within the LCDA and a bill to regulate waterways transportation in the local Council.
Hon. Wasiu Olowu, the Majority Leader who is representing Ward C2 in the Council presented the proposed Bills to the stakeholders.
At the venue were representatives of the ruling political party, All Progressives Congress (APC), Community Development Committees, Market women and men, Road Unions and Security Agencies among many other stakeholders.
Hon. Alimi, the Leader of the Council’s Legislative Arm, while welcoming members, stated that the parley was part of the legislative process to accommodate views of those they are representing in lawmaking.
“This meeting is called to accommodate people’s views into the lawmaking process at the council level.
“You can be assured that your views that will be expressed today will count when we are making the law as your representatives.
“We welcome you here and hope that you will make your impact counts”.
The Chairman of the council, Builder Sesan Daini while commending the Councilors for the initiative, also stated that the Council’s legislators are pacesetters in the state.
Sesan, who was represented at the event by his Vice Chairman, Hon. Titilola Adegboyega, also charged other councils to take a cue from the council’s lawmakers in lawmaking process.
“What we are doing today is the of its kind in the history of the council that our legislators will be organizing a public hearing as part the lawmaking process to give us what we can call Laws of Igbogbo/Bayeku Local Council Development Area.
“This is significant because after those laws are made, the council will have its own laws and its Customary court can reference to them.
“I want to appreciate the Legislative Arm for what they are doing today. They have successfully written their names in the sand of time with this bold steps. It is an easy task to have what we can call our laws”.
The Council Chairman charged stakeholders to make meaningful contributions to help the local legislators in giving the council a law that everyone can call their own.
“With this, the Legislators have done their own parts, and we are here to make our own contributions. I charge you all to ensure that we make contributions that would be useful to them when they are taking final steps in formulating the laws”, he charged.
“We must ensure that we contribute meaningfully because there may be no opportunity to review the laws in a long time and it shall be binding on all of us. Let’s look at the proposed amendments and make useful suggestions, observations and inputs”.
He also assured of adequate implementation of the laws on the part of the executive arm whenever they they finally promulgated into laws.
“On our part as the executive, we assure you that the laws are going to be implemented whenever the legislators completed the process of making the laws and it is signed into law”.
Former representative of the Ikorodu Constituency II, Hon. Gbenga Oshin speaking at the public hearing, commended the lawmakers for the initiative which he said would enable the electorate have inputs in the lawmaking process.
Hon. Oshin, who also represented the first Secretary to the State Government and member of the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), Asiwaju Olorunfunmi Basorun, stated that the law on Street Naming and House Numbering was initiated by him when he was a Councilor in the old Ikorodu Local Government.
He added that the amendments of these laws are long overdue while stating that different public hearings ought to have been conducted for each of the proposed Byelaws.
APC Chieftain, Chief Dele Olowu also speaking, charged the council to work with the men of the Nigerian Police Force and other security agencies in enforcing the laws after their promulgation.
Some of the observations and other inputs by stakeholders at the hearing were:
– That the proposed Byelaw on ‘Naming of Street & Numbering of Houses’ should also include population of residents in each of the houses in the council, families/landowners and that CDAs/CDCs should be factored into the process of naming of streets and numbering of houses.
Others were need to regulate the conduct of roadside mechanics and operation of ‘Okada’ riders by creating designated parks, need to have customized jackets for okada riders, conversion of the road besides the Asiwaju Basorun’s house into one-way and the need to effectively regulate the activities of religious bodies in the area because of noise.
Stakeholders also charged the lawmakers to ensure that the Byelaws are devoid of revenue generation for the council and concentrate more on developments.
Other dignitaries at the event were members of the Adeboruwa-in-Council, Hon. Taiwo Orenuga, former Executive Secretary, Igbogbo/Bayeku LCDA, Hon. Bosun Agoro, former Council Leader, Igbogbo/Bayeku LCDA, Pastor Aiyetoba, former APC Chairman, Igbogbo/Bayeku LCDA and now the CDC Chairman and Councilors across Lagos State.
