By Bolaji O. Akinyemi
This is paradoxical! A wonder hardly to be imagined. The man who as Governor began the emasculation of the 3rd tier of government, who turned Local Government Administrators to his puppets. The first to appoint Caretaker Committees with figure heads Executive Secretaries. Who held LG Elections as he so pleases. The Mentor of what he prays the Supreme Court to put an end to. Talk about undoing what you once did. Here it is!
A leopard never changes its spot, goes the saying.
Life is lived in pros and cons, expertise is proven by the ability to know what exactly to do when confronted with a problem in your field of expertise.
The sneaky cat needs to leap from the ground and hunt from a vantage point. Our autocracy mentor has become the hero of the rule of law.
Local Government was actually stripped of its power by intricks and manipulations of State Governors using their House of Assembly.
Tinubu’s led administration has proven his understanding of politics, though, they are in red as far as governance is concerned.
The ruling of the Supreme Court centred on the following areas:
- Allocations are to be paid directly to Local Government Councils immediately.
This for me is a mileage towards rural development. Governance as designed by Democracy is about to take its life; of the people, by the people for the people. It’s a step towards the wholesomeness of democracy.
It is now our responsibility to hold the Local Government accountable.
- The Section of the Constitution for joint allocations automatically got deleted without NASS Amendment . I hope Nigerians are learning; The man who was Governor of Lagos taught us how to tame the power of the Federal Government. As the President today as taught us how to resist the rascality of Governors in the handling of Local Government through the rule of Law.
May the Judiciary grasp the wisdom in this as the seats over issues irrespective of who is concerned. While the Executive is executive the Judiciary is Supreme. Nothing would have been done if the Federal Government didn’t approach the court with definite prayers. We all must put the Judiciary to task, hopefully it won’t be the FG that will always have justice on its cases as desired.
- Appointment of Caretaker committees is illegal and unconstitutional, no governor has any powers to appoint any CTC.
Now the Local Government can breathe, live and grow. This should make politics attractive to sincere agents of change, who can start from the lowest rung of the ladder effecting development.
The pronouncement that State governors have constituted themselves as dangerous species to the development of democracy it’s a counsel to us never to watch and leave political actors run their shows illegally against the people.
The criticism came from every side, when I said no political alliance can stop Tinubu in 2027. Strategic BAT has changed the structure of political transactions in the country. The lose of the Governors is now the gain of the Local Government Chairmen. A reset has just began. But who has BAT positioned to galvanised the beneficiaries of the FG ruling for Agenda 2027.
Bottom line is the ambiguous nature of militarised constitution that enables the manipulation of the system in such a manner as we have witnessed since 1999. The ruling wasn’t an interpretation of the law, because there is no law. The reason we the People must fast track the process of constitutional democracy before we wake up one day to discover that the Supreme Court has become the supreme god.
