BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE

LAGOS — SPEAKER of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Honourable Adeyemi Ikuforiji, has dismissed as false and misleading comments that frosty relations exist between Governor Babatunde Fashola and the House.

If anything, he said, both arms of government had enjoyed the best of collaborative support since 2007, a reason he said made Lagos House the most stable and independent in the country.

“Our governor will score a very good mark when it comes to Executive-Legislative relationship. He came in and met me as speaker. We went for elections in 2007 and 2011 and I was returned as Speaker. He has allowed an independent legislature. Lagos is probably the only state in Nigeria where the legislature is not an appendage of the governor,” he said.

Ikuforiji, who spoke with some journalists in his Ikeja, Lagos residence while reviewing the activities of the House in 2012 and challenges in the New Year, said the lawmakers passed the controversial traffic law restricting the operation of commercial motorbike (okada) in the interest of Lagosians.

According to the Speaker who opposed creation of additional states and faulty autonomy for local councils as being canvassed in some quarters, “we passed in 2012 the most hotly debated and controversial traffic law in the interest of Lagosians as a whole.”

Noting that with discipline on the part of all road users, Lagos roads would be safer, he said the lawmakers were ready to amend the law if the citizenry so desire because “we represent the interest of 20 million Lagosians, whatever they say is their interest we will do.”

On autonomy for local councils, he lamented that most state legislatures had shirked their responsibilities by pandering to the wishes of governors to the detriment of the councils.

He added, “Actually, our federation is a federation of states not local governments. It should not be the business of the centre to oversee how the local governments are run. Listing of the local governments in the constitution is wrong. It is the business of every state to see how the local government is run. It is not the business of the Federal Government at all. However, most state governments’ influence on local governments is overbearing. Something needs to be done. It is so because most state houses of assembly are annexes of the governor. The local government administration constitutionally is a baby of the House of Assembly, which determines how the local government should be run.”