Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State recently appointed
sole administrators to replace the executive secretaries who have been running
the affairs of the local governments in the state. This is coming after a court ruling that
declared the executive secretaries illegal. What is your take on this?
The hitherto subsisting situation where Executive Secretaries were appointed to run
the affairs of Local government councils does not conform to the dictates of
the Nigerian Constitution which recognises only democratic elections as the
means of evolving leadership at the Local government levels.
We expected the governor to have toed the path of true and constitutional
democracy by organizing elections in the Local government councils to correct
the aberration and illegality left behind by his predecessor. Appointing Sole administrators
is akin to replacing illegality with illegality and it abuses the
Constitutional status of Local Government Councils as an independent tier of
government.”
This move by the Lagos State Governor is once again throwing up in our faces, the
bold reality of the illegality and blatant defiance of constitutionalism that
has been perpetrated by state governors across the country since the inception
the present civilian rule.
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recognizes three tiers of
government and guarantees their independence, but unfortunately, the state
governors have persistently violated the constitutional independence of Local
Government Area councils within their respective states both economically and
politically.
The governors are able to achieve this through the control they exercise over the
Joint State and Local Government Account system. It is the fact that financial
allocations from the Federation Account for Local councils are put under the
control of the State Governors/governments that has led to the illegal
situation whereby the local government councils run cap in hand to their governors
for pittance to run the councils.
The illegal financial control which the governors wield via their being in charge
of the State and Local Government Joint Account is what they also use to
control the political affairs at the local government levels thereby disrupting
and violating their constitutional political and economic independence. That is
why whatever happens at the local council levels, is at the wimp and caprices
of the governors, including finances and imposing political leadership even
when they pretend to hold elections.
Governor Ambode should not pander to the dictates of political expediency or
opportunistic political leaders to pollute his positive ratings occasioned by
popular projects he is currently implementing across the state with
anti-democratic dictatorial tendencies like the one under review. The governor
is therefore advised to abandon the illegal ways of the old and completely change the old order by immediately conducting free and fair elections in the 57 Local Council in Lagos state without further delay.
It is the only way for the Governor to demonstrate the campaign mantra of ‘change’
upon which he and his party rode to power to the people of Lagos state in
particular and Nigeria generally. He will only be doing the right, legal and
constitutional thing and in fact blazing the trail in thrive to achieve true,
participatory and transparent democracy.
SOURCE:
NATIONAL MIRROR
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