In this interview last night on a telephone conversation with a fiery Nigerian Senator, (Dr) Femi Okurounmu, a fourth republic senator, who represented Ogun Central constituency , has criticized the ruling of the Supreme Court over granting financial autonomy to Local governments, noting the danger of not promoting true federalism, even as he warned against deepening unitary system of government-a sole administration, which he described as bad.
It could be recall that AGF, and the Federal Government had sought an order preventing the governors from arbitrarily dissolving democratically elected councils and requested financial independency , which AGF filed on 27 grounds. This is even as the 36 state governors, who are defendants in the suit, opposed the AGF’s action in instituting the case. Mark Orgu, reports
Excerpts
Senator, what is your thoughts on the ruling of the supreme court on Local government financial autonomous
The supreme court has taken us into deeper unitary system of government instead of moving us away from it and encouraging true federalism. We should be moving away from unitary system to federalism. In a federal setup, the federal government should have no business with the local governments. Local government should be the responsibility of the state governments. However, State governments are to create their local government areas and fund them. for instance, in previous system, you don’t even need to have the same system of local government administration throughout the country because the system of local government does not have to be the same around the country. We have a system where the local governments were created by federal government and are going to be funded directly by them , that is not federalism and it is not fair- it’s not fair to the states.
Sir, the emperorism of governors on using local government funds for political gain maybe the reasons supreme court ruled.
We don’t correct one wrong with another wrong. The saying is that two wrongs cannot make a right. We are all familiar with that saying, because if we are saying that states should do something wrong, the federal government should do same, no. States can be called to order but the federal government should not compound the problem of the country by doing something wrong. All of us are complaining about the unfair situation of local governments. There are too many local governments in the north compared to the south, and this gives more advantages to the north. So. what the supreme court has done is to impact and consolidate against the south. It has consolidated them and more or less legalized and make them permanent.
The AGF wants INEC to conduct all elections, especially local governments.
It’s because we are trying to correct one wrong by committing many more wrongs. And that’s why the country is going deeper and deeper into serious mess. When there is a mess, you don’t add another mess, because it will add up to the other mess.
Senator, the supreme court ruling is final on LG,
I don’t know whether the Supreme court has such course to give such a judgement. If I am a governor of a state I will protest this judgement. The Supreme court is not God, and as such, it can make mistakes. And I think it is an abuse of the court process. Right now, our government is busing the court process. The same way the court process was abused in election cases… it’s now been abused again in governance.
Sir, do you think the hope of the common man lies in the hands of the judiciary anymore?
Not the judiciary that we have today. The judiciary we have today is the judiciary that has gone off track. It has gone off the track of restitute, it has gone off the track of justice, and has gone off the track of righteousness. The common man cannot have any hope in the judiciary as we have it today. Even the Chief Justice of the Federation was complaining recently about conflicting judgements by court of equal jurisdictions. And the reason we have such conflicting judgment is because of political interest of some judges themselves.
So what’s your advice to Nigerians since you said the judiciary has gone off track
The whole system is collapsing and the way forward is a new constitution. Can’t you see the building is collapsing. Nigeria is a collapsing structure and putting additional structure on it is a waste a time.
