By Polycarp Onwubiko
Daily Trust Editorial August 8
2024 captioned: "Oyo local government chairmen must be called to
order", is not in order. The Oyo state Governor, Seyi Makinde strongly
kicked against the judgement on the ground that the Supreme Court judges overreached
themselves by arrogating to themselves the power to amend the Constitution of
the federal republic of Nigeria.
The Governor was perfectly in
order because the Supreme Court judges have no right under the Constitution
which is a supreme law of the land to arrogate to themselves the power to amend
the Constitution. The power the Supreme Court judges have is to INTERPRET the
Constitution with copious references to the provisions of the extant
constitution pertaining to what it says about local government councils.
It is shocking that the
Governors timidly accepted the fundamentally flawed Supreme Court judgment on
the so-called "local government council autonomy". The constitution
clearly stated that there should be STATE-LOCAL GOVERNMENT JOINT ACCOUNT,
wherein the monthly statutory allocation of the local government councils
should be paid into. Nobody has the authority to tamper with this very
constitutional provision until the National Assembly in conjunction with the
States House of Assembly amend the very provision. This process is enshrined in
the Constitution. Then if this is so, by what authority did the Supreme Court
judges brazenly usurped the constitutional mandate of the National Legislature?
Do you know why? This is
because it is only in Nigeria that the president of a Federation with federal
system of government, is overwhelmingly powerful, throwing his weight about
while the State Governors tremble before him and lick his ass. What a shameless
country Nigeria is?
What the enlightened and
politically educated Nigerians had expected from the Supreme Court judges was
to request the National Assembly to revisit the provisions on the local
government council and abrogate the "State local government joint
account" so that the monthly statutory revenue allocation will be sent to
the local government councils.
Recall that what gave rise to
the "State local government joint account" was the lamentations of
the local government councils workers and pensioners that local government
councils in the urban towns have many primary schools and pensioners with the
result that (apart from mindless sleaze by the elected members of the local
government councils) , the monthly revenue allocation including the internally
generated revenues were not enough to pay the teachers and pensioners as and
when due. That useless organization termed ALGON waded into the crises and
passionately appealed the president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to create the
"State local government joint account" which solved the problem of acculturated
salary and pension debts.
However, the setting in the
fundamentally and fraudulent cum flawed 1999 Constitution with the equally
Federal-Unitary contraption, made local administration a THIRD TIER OF
GOVERNMENT contrary to the norms in Federations the world over; in addition to
the fact that military regime don't have the power to make and amend federal
constitution. That is why there is a nationwide clarion calls for the immediate
Restructuring of the lopsided Federation to reinvent True Federalism. In addition
to the monstrous aberration, the military jackboots in cahoots with the
"Fulani Oligarchy and Northern Political Emirate Establishment" created
surplus local government councils in the North without doing same in the South.
It was a hidden agenda as the military autocrats proceeded to create Federal
Constituencies based on the number of local government councils in the state at
the expense and detriment of the Southern part of the country because the cabal
had envisaged a return to civilian government in 1999. The consequences of the
North have majority members in the National Assembly is to enable the North
have their way in all the Bills, Motions, and Resolutions passed irrespective
of the feelings of the southern part of the country.
That is why they stridently
kicked against restructuring the lopsided Federation which also entails
Decentralized security architecture as a panacea to the pervasive and
intractable insecurity throughout the country. But the Fulani Feudal Oligarchy
don't care about the insecurity because their hidden agenda is to use the
terrorists masquerading as herdsmen imported from the Sahel region of West
Africa for ethnic cleansing and territorial expansion as foot soldiers for
Islamization agenda.
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