The All Progressives Congress APC in Oyo state has berated Governor Seyi Makinde over his open condemnation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Supreme Court in apparent protest against the Apex Court’s verdict delivered last week which stopped state governors from mismanaging funds belonging to the local government councils in the country.
In a move described as necessary to wean the 774 local government councils in the country from the 36 state governors, President Tinubu had reportedly instructed the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, to approach the Supreme Court on the need to put a stop to the practice whereby governors dictated to officials on the management and utilization of funds accrued to the third tier of government and this effort yielded the desired fruits last Wednesday when the Court ruled that it was illegal for governors to cage the local government councils.
In a statement issued at the weekend and made available to journalists in Ibadan by its Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, Oyo APC urged Gov. Makinde to desist from actions and utterances capable of portraying the Pacesetter state in bad light in the face of the global community as well as those work assiduously for Nigeria to get it right in the area of functional democracy, adherence to the dictates of the rule of law and delivery of good governance to the citizenry.
“Gov. Makinde’s outburst in a video which went viral at the weekend gave him out as selfish, clueless and anti-people since the same judgement he was protesting had received the wide applause of the generality of the people across the country and even beyond. As a matter of fact, the latest judgement has consolidated the verdict of the same Apex Court which had found Gov. Makinde guilty as charged in Ajuwon & Ors vs Governor of Oyo state (2021) otherwise known as the Oyo ALGON case). He (Makinde) was dragged to court over a breach of the constitution as it concerned local government administration and the court found him guilty.
“Gov. Makinde did not, at any time, hide his opposition to the popular campaign for local government autonomy because he is Chief among the current state governors who feed fat on the financial resources of the third tier of government in the name of Joint Account arrangement. Allocations and Internally Generated Revenue of the 33 LGAs in Oyo state running into trillions of naira since May 2019 cannot be accounted for. After payment of workers’ salaries, Gov. Makinde would be the one to dictate what to do with the balance and this has been the case for about 61 months.
“Sad enough, many people were stunned when Gov. Makinde described the Apex Court’s verdict as a distraction even as he heaped the blame of hunger and anger in the land on the Tinubu administration. The question on the lips of the discerning minds now is; “why blame lack of productivity and food crisis on a 13 months-old Tinubu administration when you that have been in power for over 61 months cannot lay claim to any visible achievement in agriculture and other key sectors of the economy?” As a matter of fact, we had cases of looting of government-owned livestock and farm produce by the PDP elements in some local government councils immediately they came into power in 2019 while the governor himself cannot account for many loans taken for the purpose of developing the agricultural sector in the state.
“Now that Gov. Makinde has almost succeeded in bringing virtually every critical institution in the state especially the Legislative Arm, Labour and Traditional institution under his authority, je should be told in clear terms that the Presidency and Supreme Court cannot be desecrated by anyone irrespective of his status in the society. Nigeria is operating a constitutional democracy which requires all citizens including governors to respect the nation’s Constitution as well as the rights of other citizens and authorities. Gov. Makinde can mourn his loss of grip on the treasury of the 33 LGAs in Oyo state without making any attempt to drag President Tinubu and the Judiciary in the mud”. Sadare concluded.
Local government need not only financial auto nomy to make the financial autonomy succed there most be free and fair elections which INEC will conduct only not the hopeless state electoral bordy.