By Erasmus Ikhide
Earlier this year, on the floor of the National Assembly’s Red Chambers in the Senate, Adams Oshiomhole gloated grandstandingly about the illegality of dissolving elected local government officials across the country. In line with the recent Supreme Court ruling, Oshiomhole further cited an example of ‘how he rejected the urge to dissolve elected council officials from political leaders of his political party as the then governor of Edo State until their terms ran out. That was Oshiomhole last year, gaslighting Prof. Charles Soludo of Anambra State over local council dissolution in his state. Like a turncoat, Oshiomhole turned full cycle—singing discordant tunes—supporting the suspension of 18 elected council members by the ineffectual, hermit, and uncharitable Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State. The Nigerian policy court (the Supreme Court) was unequivocal in its judgment on local government autonomy. The verdict enabled local governments to make decisions and to take actions without needing approval from state governments, adding that local governments can now manage their finances, collect revenues, and allocate resources without interference from state governments.
The axiom in my part of the world states thus: “a madman is an excitable spectacle to watch but certainly not when he’s your relation.” All along — Adams Oshiomhole has been polluting the Nigerian political space with incoherent, illogical and rule of the thumb twitches that drew barrel — blank and blink mockery to the Edo Nation and its citizens alike.
As a celebrated revisionist, recidivist and loquacious vanity of a senator, it is time public consciousness is awakened to prevent Oshiomhole from depreciating and dismantling the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
On July 11, 2024, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment affirming the financial autonomy of Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Councils. As a follow-up to the judgment, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, inaugurated an Inter-Ministerial Implementation Committee to enforce the Supreme Court judgment.
In other words, the full financial autonomy granted to the local government councils meant that their share of the monthly statutory allocations from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) was sent to them directly, and the internally generated revenue was all spent without reference or interference from any quarters.
Earlier this year, on the floor of the National Assembly’s Red Chambers in the Senate, Adams Oshiomhole gloated grandstandingly about the illegality of dissolving elected local government officials across the country.
In line with the recent Supreme Court ruling, Oshiomhole further cited an example of ‘how he rejected the urge to dissolve elected council officials from political leaders of his political party as the then governor of Edo State until their terms ran out.
That was Oshiomhole last year, gaslighting Prof. Charles Soludo of Anambra State over local council dissolution in his state. Like a turncoat, Oshiomhole turned full cycle—singing discordant tunes—supporting the suspension of 18 elected council members by the ineffectual, hermit, and uncharitable Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State.
The Nigerian policy court (the Supreme Court) was unequivocal in its judgment on local government autonomy. The verdict enabled local governments to make decisions and to take actions without needing approval from state governments, adding that local governments can now manage their finances, collect revenues, and allocate resources without interference from state governments.
The judgment has laid to rest the argument of whether or not governors can dissolve elected council officials since they lack the power to regulate the local councils’ activities. What a vacillating Oshiomhole wanted was a Nigerian and Edo State cast in his own primitive image and likeness where pernicious proclivity operates the levers of power and wealth.
A few weeks ago, many unsuspecting Nigerians idolized Oshiomhole for stepping up to the plague of national darkness visited on the country by those entrusted with electricity generation and supply.
Most Nigerians are unaware that a grandiose and asphyxiating Oshiomhole needed that showmanship in the Senate’s Red Chambers to have Mr. Tony Elumelu and his co-accomplice in the power generation fiasco worship and engage him in a nationalistic patronage system, a euphemism for corruption.
In the interest of national constitutional harmony, Oshiomhole’s gloated gang must be reined in because when self-interests conspire to gain ascendancy, all other interests, including national interest, must take a back seat.
There is no better time to consign the likes of haunting and vaulting Adams Oshiomhole to the dustbin of our national political history—regardless of the vicarious satisfaction for his immediate family—if a new Nigeria must emerge.
Ikhide Erasmus contributed this piece via: ikhideluckyerasmus@gmail.com
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