16 February 2005
On 9 February, 2005 the Lagos State National
Conscience Party (NCP) issued a statement "LAGOS LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
CRISIS" at a press conference that was reported in a number of
newspapers.
Four days later the Alliance for Democracy (AD)
led Lagos State administration issued a rejoinder attacking the Lagos
State NCP, accusing it of being in an "unholy romance" with
the People�s Democratic Party of President Obasanjo and describing the
NCP�s position as "a disgrace to populist politics".
The NCP statement below refuting the AD�s
charges and restating its opposition to both the AD and PDP was
presented to press on February 16.
Lagos State National Conscience Party statement
REJOINDER TO LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT ON NEW LOCAL COUNCILS
NO AMOUNT OF BLACKMAIL AND GRANDSTANDING SHALL DEBAR US FROM OUR
JUST AND DEMOCRATIC AGITATION
Most national dailies of February 14 2005 carried a
statement issued by the chief Press Secretary to the governor of Lagos
State, Mr. Segun Ayobolu, wherein many disparaging and totally unfounded
abuses and blackmail were rained on the Lagos State NCP�s position on
the funding and administration of local councils in Lagos State.
Unfortunately however, virtually all the newspapers that used the above
cited statement did not carry a single sentence from the text of our own
original press conference on the subject matter held on Wednesday,
February 9 2005.
Without scruple and without citing a single sentence
from our press conference, Mr. Ayobolu nonetheless variously described
our positions on the issues at stake as having being motivated by
"narrow, selfish, partisan greed and opportunism". In
addition, Mr. Ayobolu accused the Lagos State NCP of having entered into
"an unholy conspiracy to kill the people�s oriented 57 local
councils in the marriage of strange bed fellows" with the PDP in
Lagos State. In another part, Mr. Ayobolu�s statement reads:
"every mass oriented political party must align its interest with
the aspirations of the common man on the street. The local governments
of Lagos State are the product of the aspiration of the citizens of
Lagos State to bring government closer to them"!
When critically examined, many of the above quoted
accusations and positions coming from the AD�s government against the
National Conscience Party are, to say the least, ludicrous and
laughable. Ordinarily, we would simply have ignored these ridiculous
charges against NCP as the rantings of a politically doomed ex-pro
masses party. However, there are too many misleading impressions and
assertions contained in Mr. Ayobolu�s statement which if not taken up
now will only help to deepen the current material and political
deprivations being suffered by overwhelming working masses and youths of
Lagos State, as a result of the elitist and kleptomaniac administration
being presided over by Governor Bola Tinubu since May 1999.
But before we make a couple of comments on the above
quotations, we think it will be more useful at this stage to reproduce
the relevant parts of the press conference which Mr. Ayobolu�s
statement was reacting to.
We quote:
"THE DECEMBER 10, 2004 SUPREME COURT
JUDGEMENT
"There were two major aspects of the Supreme
Court judgment made on December 10, 2004 in respect of the suit filed
by the Lagos state government:
1. The Supreme Court held that the federal
government had no right whatsoever to withhold allocations meant for
local councils in Lagos state or any other state for that matter under
the relevant provisions of 1999 constitution of Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
"2. The Supreme Court also held that the 57
local councils purportedly created by the Lagos state government are
"inchoate", that is, inconclusive because specifically, the
national assembly has not passed a consequential act as provided by
section 8(5) of the 1999 constitution and that for this reason, this
purported councils are not entitled to and should not be funded with
public money.
"OUR STANCE
"1. We in the Lagos state NCP hereby call on
the federal government to unconditionally release forthwith all the
withheld allocations for local councils in Lagos state. On the basis
of the relevant provisions of the 1999 constitution and the
unambiguous pronouncement of the Supreme Court, the federal government
has no any valid basis to continue to withhold the allocation meant
for local councils in Lagos state even for a second. We consequently
demand that the federal government stops all acts of subterfuge and
diversions by creating baseless conditionalities before doing its duty
under the law. In stating the above position, we wish to state
categorically that we are not persuaded nor impressed by the
tendentious and blatantly biased analysts, jurists, political jobbers
who are often too eager to uphold this aspect of the Supreme Court
decision while conveniently ignoring or down played the other crucial
aspect of Supreme Court decisions, which we will come to presently.
"2. Although the Supreme Court declined to
invalidate the purported election held into the so-called 57 local
councils in Lagos State because according to the Supreme Court, the
concerned "elected" officers were not parties to the suit
ruled upon. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court emphatically pronounced the
process of their creation (i.e. local councils) as
"inchoate" and in fact, emphasized in different aspects of
the judgment in issue that no public fund must be appropriated for the
running of the so-called 57 local councils newly created in Lagos
state. In fact, to avoid any ambiguity whatsoever, the Supreme Court
ruled that the allocation which the federal government must
unconditionally release to Lagos state is to be solely used for the
running of the 20 local councils listed for Lagos state in the
schedule to the 1999 constitution.
"In this respect, amongst other decisions,
the Supreme Court held as follows:
"(a) "The Lagos State Government has the
constitutional competence under section 8(3) of the Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to promulgate the Creation of
Local Government Areas Law No. 5 of 2002 and to amend it by passing
the Creation of Local Government Areas (Amendment) Law 2004 which
created the 57 Local Governments. Consequently, they are valid, legal
and constitutional but that these Laws cannot be operational and
cannot have effect until the National Assembly performs its
constitutional duty under section 8(5) of the 1999 Constitution.
"(b) However, the 57 Local Governments
created by the government of Lagos State out of the 20 Local
Governments contained in First Schedule Part I of the Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 are not operational and cannot
take effect until the National Assembly promulgate an Act containing
consequential provisions to amend section 3 subsection 6 and First
Schedule Part I of the Constitution by increasing the number of Local
Governments specified in section 3(6) and particulars of the new Local
Governments under Lagos State in First Schedule Part I of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999.
"(c) The statutory allocation which the
Federal Government must release to Lagos State Government must be for
the 20 Local Governments in Lagos State contained in the First
Schedule Part I of the Constitution since the National Assembly has
not promulgated an Act making consequential provisions in respect of
the 57 Local Governments created by Lagos State.
"(d) The new 57 Local Governments of Lagos
State established by Creation of Local Government Areas Law No. 5 of
2002 as amended by Creation of Local Government Areas (Amendment) Law
2004 are not entitled to receive fund from Federation Account because
those Local Governments do not exist at the moment under the
Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and those Laws can
only be operational when the National Assembly makes consequential
provisions in an Act pursuant to section 8(5) of the
Constitution".
"On the basis of this clear ruling of the
Supreme Court, we in the Lagos state NCP therefore demand:
"1. The unconditional and immediate
disbandment of the purported 57 local councils newly created in Lagos
state.
"2. That the Lagos state government
immediately and fully restore, without any infraction or loss of
asset, the structures of the 20 local governments listed in the
schedule to the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This becomes necessary because of the dubious but futile exercise
recently carried out by the Lagos state House of Assembly when it
decided to retain merely the names of these 20 listed local councils
while stubbornly holding that their buccaneering and cannibalization
through fragmentation into 57 local council entities stay.
"3. An immediate election into the 20 listed
local councils in Lagos state in accordance with the relevant
provision of the 1999 constitution and the Lagos State electoral law,
especially on the basis of the judicial interpretation of that law by
the Lagos state High Court. This becomes necessary because even if the
Supreme Court did not invalidate the purported election held on March
27, 2004 into the so-called new councils, this fact without further
ado justifies the call for fresh election into the 20 local councils
which actually exist in Lagos state, now that the Supreme Court has
ruled that there are only 20 local councils in Lagos state and not 57
which was the basis upon which the March 27, 2004 local councils
election in Lagos state was conducted.
"4. We call on Lagosians in particular and
Nigerians in general to commence forthwith, acts of civil disobedience
against the illegal local councils being operated presently in Lagos
state. Citizens should henceforth refuse to pay taxes, tenement rates,
fines, levies to these illegal councils and neither should their Bye
laws be obeyed. Their existence is unknown to the law as pronounced by
the Supreme Court and consequently, their activities are illegal and
illegitimate.
"5. We in Lagos NCP hereby call on all those
parading themselves as elected chairmen and councillors of these
"inchoate local councils" to stop doing so forthwith.
Simultaneously, we call on Lagos state government to stop forthwith
the appropriation of public fund for the running and maintenance of
these elements because they do not exist under the relevant provisions
of the 1999 constitution.
"The concept behind the creation of local
councils is hinged on the premises that positive government services
can be brought nearer to the people at the grass root levels.
Unfortunately however, the experience of most Nigerians, particularly
those in Lagos state, over the activities of local councils has been a
total disappointment. Rather than provide succour to the people, the
so-called newly created local councils have only constituted
themselves into menace on the living standard and democratic rights of
Lagosians through many exploitative levies, fines and obnoxious
Bye-laws and Regulations. Far from providing any tangible positive
service to the community, these councils individually and collectively
have been behaving more like locusts with relentless determination to
make life difficult for ordinary citizens." (End of Quote)
We have extensively reproduced the relevant parts of
the text of the press conference which brought out the poisonous venoms
from Mr. Ayobolu�s pen. We consequently leave readers to draw their
own conclusions as to the justness or otherwise of the Lagos State
government�s blackmail vis-�-vis our position on the so-called 57 new
councils in Lagos State.
A FEW COMMENTS ON MR. AYOBOLU�S STATEMENT
1. Mr. Ayobolu gave the false impression that Lagos
State NCP�s position canvassed at the press conference in issue and
which position was quoted above was a new position. On the contrary
however, the position expressed above with respect to the status of the
so-called 57 newly created councils in Lagos State has always been the
position of the Lagos State NCP abinitio, although space cannot permit
us here to reproduce several documents where similar positions had been
maintained in the past. Nonetheless, we hereby reproduce the relevant
part of the text of a press conference which Lagos State NCP addressed
on March 24, 2004, that is about 3 days before the March 27 farcical
local government election held in Lagos State by the AD�s government
marionette called LASIEC on March 27, 2004.
We quote:
"20 OR 57 LOCAL COUNCILS?
"The Lagos State government and its
marionette called LASIEC have declared several times that the March 27
2004 local government election will be held in the 57 so-called newly
created local governments in Lagos State. While of course we concede
that certain processes to create new local governments in Lagos state
under the provisions of 1999 constitution have been commenced, it is
however, our strong contention that these processes have not been
concluded and as such cannot form the basis of legal entities upon
which an election can be conducted. For this reason, the NCP and a
number of other parties active in Lagos state have gone to court to
challenge the legality of the so-called newly created local
governments. Our action in this respect has been primarily motivated
by the concern to get the best for the working masses. Right now,
because the so-called newly created local governments are yet to fully
fulfil the constitutional requirements for such exercise, there would
be no additional allocation for the running of local government
activities in Lagos state from federation account.
"Faced with this situation, Governor Bola
Tinubu of Lagos state, held bent on going ahead to conduct election
into these illegal entities has stated that whatever amount is
received for the running of the 20 constitutionally recognised local
governments in Lagos state will be shared amongst its own 57 illegal
entities being called councils. This, without mincing word, is a
recipe for the financial short-changing of the ordinary masses because
at the end of the day, once the new chairmen, deputies, assistants and
assistants to assistants satisfy their own ever greedy appetite from
whatever allocation is given, there will always be little or nothing
left for genuine development in the living conditions of the masses.
Even right now, these so-called local governments have only succeeded
in proving their mettle through the intensification of the suffering
of the poorest layers of the society via ruthless and repressive
collection of all sorts of bogus levies and implementation of
bye-laws." (End of Quote)
2. The claim the "the local governments of
Lagos State are the product of the aspiration of the citizenry of the
Lagos State" is an absolutely false one. What the average Lagosian
needs and which are lacking are adequate foods, descent accommodation,
good and well maintained roads, functional and affordable education and
health care, stable and affordable water, electricity, telecommunication
and communication services etc. Only self-serving politicians like those
that dominate the AD contrived the creation of more local government as
a way of serving the materials needs and egos of their leaders and
members. It is an open truth that AD�s party and government in Lagos
State has been able to keep appearance of unity on the basis of
"jobs for the boys" newly created local councils which are
nothing but conduit pipes meant to siphon public money that could have
been used to better the lot of the masses into the pockets of individual
politicians and their mentors. The so-called new local governments right
from inception were warned not to employ additional workers because in
truth these councils were not designed to better the lot of the masses.
3. The accusation that the Lagos State NCP has
become a "willing tool of the despotic, dictatorial and unpopular
charlatans PDP in Lagos State" is nothing but a complete blackmail.
This allegation is nothing but a cynical, bold face sham, where a thief
turns round to accuse the owner of stealing! Every average politically
conscious element knows today that there is no any tangible difference
between PDP and AD vis-�-vis their corrupt, anti-people policies and
conducts. It should be stressed that this fact has been responsible for
the smooth and effortless ease with which AD�s leaders and members
have been decamping in droves to the PDP. After all, birds of the same
character flock together! Today, every averagely perspective analyst
could already see that the self-serving politicking and vaunting
ambitions of individual politicians like Governor Tinubu will
willy-nilly drive the remnant of the AD and Governor Tinubu himself into
PDP or any other PDP like anti-people�s party sooner than may be
imagined. In the wake of the massively rigged and manipulated farce
called the 2003 general election, at a time when many erstwhile
colleagues of Governor Bola Tinubu in the AD were wailing that the PDP
controlled INEC had rigged them out of power and as a result calling for
the cancellation of the elections, Governor Bola Tinubu, true to his
real political character, declared: "the most urgent need of ours
is to rally round the president�. We must accelerate the pace of
privatisation. We must intensify the liberalisation and open up of the
country�. Let this task unites us irrespective of the party
affiliation or political disposition" (Tribune, May 27, 2003, Page
2). Occasionally behind the scene, officials of the Lagos State
government can be heard complaining about how the prevailing Nigeria�s
political configurations has been unfair to Lagos State with its huge
population and peculiar socio-economic features.
But when President Obasanjo led PDP government
announced the setting up of a National Political Reform Conference on
the basis of these unjust political configurations, not a murmur of
objection was raised against this arrangement so as not to be branded as
radical opponents of the status quo and thereby put their future
political ambitions in jeopardy! Time shall soon fully show who the real
allies, collaborators of "the despotic dictatorial unpopular
charlatans PDP" are!
4. Mr. Ayobolu in the statement in issue gives the
impression of someone that believes, or that at least, is familiar with
the Bible. Hence his reference to the Biblical victory of the generally
believed weak David over mighty Goliath. We shall not here try to x-ray
who the real Davids are and who are the real Goliaths in the current
conflicts. Time, we believe, will very soon sort this out. However, each
time Mr. Ayobolu sets out to do his hatchet job, we advise him to always
bear in mind this Biblical words: "Woe unto them that call evil
good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness,
and put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter" (Isaiah chapter 5
verse 20).
The struggle continues.
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