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Governor Obaino of Anambra State |
Report
By Comrade Aloysius Attah
One sore point in the Peter Obi led
administration in Anambra State that led to altercation and collision with some
civil society organizations in the state chiefly the JDPC, Onitsha Archdiocese
and the CLO Anambra State Branch is the non democratization of the 3rd
tier structure of government in the state. Though the past administration gave
so many reasons why the local government election could not hold, we kept
pressurizing the government on the issue until finally on January 11, 2014, the
elections into the local councils were conducted.
Whether the election was done in a
free, fair and credible manner is an issue for another day but we are worried
on the manner the local councils are being run presently in Anambra.
Against the dictates and spirits of
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Anambra local government
system is in shambles that to describe it as an appendage of the state
government will amount to promotion, rather, the right word will be slaves or
toys of the state government.
The council chairmen are servants of
the ministry of local government and the executive while the councilors live
like paupers. The 21 local government chairmen receive handouts from the
ministry and they are taunted to even remain ever thankful to their paymasters,
after all, they were privileged to be selected in the first place. Any of the
council chairmen who want to be assertive or claim to know too much has
incurred the wrath of the gods and must pay dearly for such.
Then against any known democratic
norms and practice, some council chairmen are appointed or given legal backing
to stay in office as it suits the powers that be.
Such was the scenario that led to
the appointment of Chief Emeka Ojukwu Jnr as the Sole Administrator of
Nnewi North Local Government . When it became so glaring to the APGA government
that it will likely lose the local government to the opposition for peculiar
reasons, Gov. Obiano announced the appointment of Ojukwu jnr as the sole
administrator while his 20 other counterparts were elected thereby acting as if
the state was in a military era.
Another serious aberration was the
continued stay in office of the ousted Chairman of Ihiala Local Government
Area, Chigozie Awugosi even when the election tribunal and the appeal had
sacked him and ordered for a fresh election. The Aguata Zone of the Election
Appeal Tribunal sitting at Ekwulobia presided over by Justice Obiora had
on June 19, 2014 upheld the judgment of the Obi Anizoba led Election Petitions
Tribunal which nullified the election of Awugosi on April 9, 2014 and ordered
him to vacate office and allow ANSIEC conduct a fresh election. Surprisingly,
Mr. Awugosi remained in office on the strength of a memo signed by the
Commissioner for Local Government simply because he made an application to the
Court of Appeal for a stay of execution of the ruling of the High Court and the
election tribunal which was not granted until November 10, 2014 when the same
court ordered him to be thrown to jail for 3 months without option of fine for
contempt of court.
Anambra State Government by these
episodes was not only brought to public ridicule but it has shown the extent to
which the local government system has been bastardised in the State. As
at the time of compiling this report, Mr. Awugosi is still taking Ben
Johnson style and voomkamma like Chioma Ajunwa as he reportedly
vanished from the court premises immediately the pronouncement against him was
made and has not been seen since then. Till now, Ihiala doesn’t have a council
chairman while our source in the council confided to the CLO that salaries have
not been paid to the workers and councilors till now.
All these are happening in Anambra
at a time that there is a national concern over the agitation for the granting
of full autonomy to the local government system. It is on this premise
that we join in the full support for local government autonomy in Nigeria and
call on the Anambra State Government to loosen its tight grip on the local
government system in the state. We did say in our UDHR Report of 2013 that we
want to see whom to hold responsible if our streets (Trunk C Roads) are not
graded among other functions of the local government councils listed in the
Schedule 4 of the 1999 Constitution as amended. We also call for the
immediate conduct of democratic local government elections in Nnewi North and
Ihiala Local Government councils without further delay.
(Being
excerpts from the 25 paged End year/World Human Rights Day Report of the Civil
Liberties Organisation(CLO), Anambra State Branch 08035090548
attahcomrade@yahoo.com)
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