FG chasing shadows with LGAs allocations suit against state governors- Okoli-Akirika, LP chieftain

How would you assess President Bola Tinubu’s one year in office?

The truth is that a fair assessment of President Bola Tinubu’s administration is really to state the true position of things. Whether he has done well or not, the only parameter to measure it is very simple. One, where did you meet Nigeria currently, two, where is the state of security, and three, how is the welfare of the common Nigerian? Now if you take a cumulative appraisal or critical analysis of this government it becomes obvious. To say that Tinubu has done very well, the person is living in a world of fantasy. The truth is that in terms of insecurity and welfare which by Section 14 of the 1999 Constitution, the main essence and primarily the functions of a government, and given that, Tinubu’s regime has failed in all ramifications. We are all witnesses to the obvious fact that insecurity has moved from being a senatorial, or regional issue and it is now conspicuous that be it in the hamlets, in the villages, in the wards, in the local government areas, in the federal and state constituencies and go to the northern part of Nigeria, it has taken over everywhere. So, what I am saying is that President Bola Tinubu has failed to deliver on the basic constitutional mandates to secure the lives and property of Nigerians. When you talk about the welfare of Nigerians, it is also obvious that the kind whimsical manner in which he tampered with the price of petroleum products is unfortunate because on the day of swearing in he made a statement that the subsidy had been removed. He did it without considering those pervasive effects on the economy. Socially, Nigerians are also suffering, and remember that recently he has been bandying about the idea of giving everybody N75,000. In practical terms, what can it do for Nigerians? You cannot buy a bag of rice with N75,000 and it is one and half the monthly salary of an average Nigerian worker. It cannot fuel your vehicle for two weeks. So, I can say without any fear of contradiction that Tinubu has methodically and meticulously mismanaged the economy, the issues of security, and the issues of the welfare of Nigerians. So, no matter the perspective, no matter the measures he has failed in respect of governance.

But what do you think is the way out of the level of poverty and bad economy in the country as you said?

It is very simple. The security of Nigerians should be guaranteed in the food-producing areas. Now people cannot go to the farm to plant, when they plant, they cannot harvest and when they plant and harvest, they cannot distribute. No matter the way you look at it, because of the pervasive insecurity in the country, farmers cannot do anything, and since you cannot produce, there is no way you can control the prices of goods in this country.

Prices are determined by the forces of demand and supply so when you don’t supply, and the demand keeps going higher, what do you do?

You keep witnessing galloping inflation, you keep witnessing a situation where the local currency cannot square up with the foreign currency, and at the end of the day Nigeria will end up import dependent import oriented. When you import, you weaken and reduce the strength of your currency because there is no corresponding production with the consumption on your part. That was why Mr Peter Obi during the 2023 general elections preached for us to change from production to consumption. There are allegations that the Federal Government is secretly subsidising petroleum products. This is funny whether they are doing that or not, nobody knows, but the fact remains that petroleum products as of now enjoy the most irregular price of the petroleum price regime.

Recently the Federal government approached the Supreme Court over the allocations of the local government and the non-conduction of the local government elections, what are your views?

What they went for is for the independence of the local government areas, but my answer is emphatically no! I don’t see the matter being ruled in favour of the Federal Government. The truth is that the framers of the 1999 Constitution appear to have a wonderful vision of the local government but in the spirit of the law and the letters of the law, there were no clear-cut provisions establishing the existence of the local government system. If you look at Section 7 of the Constitution it says that the system that every state should have in place is a system of democratically elected local government. What it means is that there is a constitutional provision anticipating or envisaging a democratically elected local government system. But very unfortunately and paradoxically, that same law rests that wonderful provision at the whims and caprices of the state governors. That is why you can now see that the various state governors quickly exploit that provision which is by the law set up by the state government ensuring the functions, finance, and existence of local government. What I think the Federal government should have done, is to have supported or championed a constitutional review to now put in place some sections of the law making it mandatory that local government elections shall be conducted periodically and resting the powers to conduct the election on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). And most importantly, the law should provide a standardized tenure of office. In some states, they have a two-year tenure of office while others have three-year tenure of office. But in the case of Anambra State, it is a different thing altogether. It is a situation where after every three months they go to the state House of Assembly to re-elect them again and again and they go back to re-enact the same ritual, and this is very worrisome. But in the course of his campaign during the election, he made a solemn promise to conduct local government elections within six months in office and he never did. We expected the governor to do the least by keeping to that promise and respecting that promise.

It will not cost him anything and what it would cost him is gaining political goodwill and political sagacity. So, it is surprising and bewildering that the governor could not keep to a simple promise by his conduct of an election. So, I will expect the governor to do a quick job to restore his integrity as a governor by respecting his promise. However, I was happy the other day when I heard that the state House of Assembly has commenced the process of setting up the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC), which means that the governor knew what he had done. It was the former governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) now an aspirant of the Labour Party, the one that started these agitations and drew us to the fact that the governor made a promise during the election and today the federal government has gone to court in respect of that.

But we still have the issue of the Joint Account Commission (JAC) in respect of the canvassed election

Well, the Transition Committee Chairmen and Councillor were appointed, and as such they cannot ask for the allocations of their local government areas, and if they do that it has grave implications. If you go there they produce what they call an estimate, and you have no choice but to sign and probably take your cut. Go to the Awka South local government area and ask the lawmakers that are representing them if there has ever been a debate on the estimates of the Awka South local government area. It is not done, and the only thing that we have to do to checkmate that situation is to make sure that the Constitution is amended.

So, are you saying that the suit filed by the Federal Government is of no consequence?