Oyo to review S’Court judgment, create home-grown solution

…we ‘ll do what is right, won’t allow our people to suffer – Makinde

Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has stated his Government’s intent not allow the people of the State to suffer from the fallout of the Supreme Court judgment which granted financial autonomy to Local Governments in the Country.

Governor Makinde noted that the Supreme Court judgment had created a Constitutional lacuna that would throw up different challenges at the Local Government level, saying though he wasn’t opposed to transparency in the Councils, Supreme Court judgment “is not a silver bullet that will wash away” Nigeria’s problems.

The governor, who spoke one Monday during an Advisory/Consultative Committee Meeting comprising stakeholders in the Local Government system, noted that he convened a meeting of all relevant stakeholders in the Local Government system so that they could outline the major challenges at the Councils and develop solutions that would ensure a seamless implementation of the process in a way that would ensure Oyo State people do not suffer.

According to the governor, my administration knows and has been doing what is right, including conducting two council elections to ensure caretaker committees don’t man the affairs of councils, clearing of backlog of debts owed workers and pensioners at the council level and fixing of infrastructure deficit in the Primary Health Care sectors and the inner roads.

The meeting, held in Ibadan, had in attendance Council Chairmen, the leaderships of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), as well as Representatives of Ministries, Departments and Agencies that have connection with the Local Government system.

At the end of the meeting, the governor set up two committees saddled with the responsibilities of reviewing the Supreme Court judgment on Local Government autonomy and coming up with recommendations that would ensure that the change does not affect the people of the State negatively.

“I called this meeting because I felt that even though we have not seen the Certified True Copy of the judgment of the Supreme Court, we have to be proactive and discuss the decision of the Supreme Court as it concerns financial autonomy of the local government councils because I believe a lacuna has been created between the decision and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that we all swore to uphold.

“The law is the law and when there is a conflict, yes, we should go to the court. But it behooves on us to look for our own homegrown solutions that can ensure that we have transparency and that our people do not suffer. This is because when two elephants are fighting it is the grass that will suffer”, he said.

Briefing newsmen shortly after the closed door meeting, Ademola Ojo, the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, stated that the two Committees set up by the governor had been given a frame time of four to six weeks to come up with the home-grown approach to addressing the lacuna created by the Supreme Court judgment.

Also speaking, Biodun Aikomo, Attorney-General/Commissioner for Justice, said the governor took a proactive step by setting up the Committees, saying the step would help address the crisis that might arise as a result of the judgment.