The official opening of 2024 Press Week of Oyo NUJ turned into a session of serious academic discussion and agenda-setting argument on the vexatious issue of local government autonomy and the recent Supreme Court judgement on the matter. SAM NWAOKO reports the session.
The stage was set for the usual journalists’ camaraderie, hugs, backslapping and conviviality as they gathered from the various media outfits in Oyo State to formally open their 2024 Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Press Week. They had been joined by some of their notable friends, patrons, supporters and well-wishers at the venue which is the customary Dapo Aderogba Hall inside the Press Centre in Ibadan. It was a happy gathering with boisterous music but, like the usual warning in the Kegites Club, “in the midst of happiness there is also danger.” This is because there was no slight inkling of how the event would turn as it went on and dignitaries took turns to address the gathering.
The Chairman of Oyo NUJ, Chief Ademola Babalola, in the first of the speeches had welcomed the guests, atop of whom was Governor Seyi Makinde represented by his deputy, Chief Adebayo Lawal; the awardees, friends and his journalist-colleagues to the Press Week. He explained that the theme of the 2024 Press Week: “Digital Transformation: Journalism, Power Sector and Future of Nigeria” was an all-encompassing consideration of the main issues that diversely impact journalists and journalism in the state and indeed the country. Babalola noted that journalism had been vastly transformed by the ongoing digital revolution, while the power sector in Nigeria remained a touchy subject which bodes variously on the performance of journalists in the country. He said the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu would be speaking on the sector in a lecture that had been designed as part of the week-long activities of the press week.
Babalola acknowledged that the government of Seyi Makinde in Oyo State had taken steps in tackling some of the issues covered by the theme of the press week. For instance, the government had completed and inaugurated a 11KVA independent power plant in the state capital while also redefining road infrastructure in the state to ease movement.
Babalola commended Governor Makinde, whom he said was “the most friendly to the Oyo State Council of the NUJ.” He also commended the day’s award recipients and described them as individuals who had proven over the years by their deeds that they were worthy of recognition. The NUJ, he said, was happy to recognise them, some of them for their humanitarian activities in the state and beyond.
He listed the awardees as Deputy Governor Lawal, a lawyer of high repute and an astute community and political leader; the member representing Ibadan Northwest/Southwest federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Stanley Adedeji Olajide popularly known as Odidi Omo; the first and only female Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Senator Monsurat Sunmonu; and a philanthropist, Amofin Beulah Adeoye.
The Oyo NUJ Chairman noted that the press week, apart from serving as a reminder that journalists should also let their hair down as and when due, was also meant to stir among them debates on contemporary issues of national importance for the necessary ideas that are needed to move the country forward.
However, the Chairman of the day’s event, Dr Yemi Farounbi, in his opening remarks after Babalola’s welcome address, set the tone for the intellectual singsong that thereafter pervaded the day’s ceremony. Dr Farounbi, known for his depth in national and intellectual topics, deftly prodded at the Supreme Court judgement on local government autonomy which has remained a touchy issue since it was delivered in July this year. He stressed the need for journalists and other stakeholders to look critically at the judgement and interrogate it in relation to the federalism Nigeria is practising.
Farounbi, Nigeria’s former ambassador to the Philippines and later, Cambodia, is a media veteran per excellence. He drew the attention of the audience to how Oyo government reacted to the Supreme Court judgement on local government, and how there had been a logjam in the implementation of the judgement because of certain ambiguities.
“I think Governor Seyi Makinde has shown perfect understanding of the relationship between the local governments and states. The relationship is like that of mother and a child, it is impossible to be severed. There has to be a way to distinguish how the local governments are monitored and how they are governed,” Farounbi stated. He explained that federalism was being impeded by the moves of the federal government to yank the control of the local government from the state regardless of all the constitutional provisions against such action.
He said the tax reform bill before the National Assembly was also a cause for open discussion. “The new tax law with a clause which seeks to make a nullity any law enacted by states which contradicts the federal tax law is deemed not to have been passed,” he noted and said it was against the spirit of true federalism. “We will keep speaking and pointing out these things for the good of our nation.
He also lauded the Oyo State government on power generation and observed that “the national grid isn’t able carry the power generated thereby leaving people in the dark despite all the promises. He said, “we took care of generation and failed to take care of transmission which has today remained incapable of taking care of our needs.”
Then came the opportunity for responses from the audience and the Coordinator of the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ) Oyo Campus, Alhaji Bolaji Kareem, took the lead. He wondered why governors, if Nigeria was indeed a federation, would not allow the local government autonomy. He said he disagreed with Dr Farounbi because in one breath he said there should be true federalism but in another, he said the local government could not be a federating unit. Alhaji Kareem’s question and comments brought out the best in the responses that followed, with some in the audience perceiving him as having misunderstood Dr Farounbi.
The Chief press Secretary to Governor Seyi Makinde, Dr. Sulaimon Olanrewaju, said in his simple but profound submission that the local government debate would not have been if true federalism was in force in the country. Senator Mulikat Akande recalled the role the Assembly she served as the Speaker played in ensuring proper local government administration.
The deputy governor, Chief Adebayo Lawal, a lawyer of repute with vast experience, who had also served as Attorney-General of Oyo State, was listening to the opinions. He was at the gathering as a representative of Governor ‘Seyi Makinde and in his capacity as one of the awardees. He saw the occasion as an opportunity to explain the local government conundrum and educate people on the position of the Oyo State government in it all.
Lawal said: “Journalists have to really interrogate some of some of the ongoing challenges we have in Nigeria because I can see that we are not interrogating ourselves, we are not even interrogating the judgements that are coming out, especially from the Supreme Court. And if you don’t do it as journalists, then it is like you are helping to bury facts that people must know but which they do not know.
“We got a judgement in July this year which says that autonomy of local government is guaranteed, and the money standing to the credit of local governments must go directly to the local governments. Since July, we’ve been unable to enforce that judgement and I have asked myself why it has been so difficult to enforce this judgment. Why is it so difficult to enforce? As journalists, you must know why it is so difficult.
“Last week, I was at the National Economic Council Meeting and then governors said we have a judgment in our hands and the Attorney-General of the Federation is saying we must enforce the judgement. But that judgment is hanging without grounds and any judgement that is difficult to enforce becomes otiose, as we lawyers describe such judgement. It becomes unenforceable.
“Sections 8 and 9 of the constitution of Nigeria guarantees that the existence of local government is democratically under the state government, meaning that local government cannot exist unless you have a state that is in existence. And so, local government cannot and should not, by any interpretation be an independent arm of government. If it were to be so, then at the NEC meeting that I attended last week where governors and the Vice President, who normally presides, were in attendance, then you would have 774 local government chairmen in attendance. What kind of arrangement is that? So, journalists, you have to interrogate and do a little more of intellectual critique of the judgment.
“Secondly, it is not as if this route is strange. In 1999, I was the Attorney-General of this state and those who were around would testify to the fact that it was an era of zero allocation to local governments. In Ibadan city, we had five local governments that could not even pay salaries because there was no money to pay. In some other zones of Oyo State, they were paying conveniently and so they went to court. Kano State was unable to pay; Sokoto State was unable to pay. The only states that were able to pay local government salaries were Rivers State and Lagos State. So the Supreme Court then did something about it in the case of Attorney-General of Abia State and Attorney-General of the Federation where state/local government joint account was created. This is in Section 162(5) of the constitution.
“Till date, that section of the constitution, inspite of the Supreme Court judgement in July this year, that section has not been repealed neither has it been amended. So, this is a section that is standing on its own and another judgement of the Supreme Court standing side by side. So journalists would help a lot if you throw this fact to the open and let Nigerians know exactly what is happening. The perception out there is that governors are trying to deprive LGs of the money that should ordinarily be flowing to the LGs, in fact, that is the opposite of the case.
I had a chance to address some LG chairmen and I said if this judgment is fully complied with, some of the local government chairmen would be victims of the judgement because it will take us back to the 1999 scenario. It is as simple as that.
“About federalism, and the question of if we are running a federation, the answer is obviously no by the conduct of our people. Look at the conduct of some members of the National Assembly and some senators and it is so sad. And we are canvassing that INEC should conduct election into the LG… is that a federation? With glee, senators who were elected to go and help foster federation and federal government. Rather than doing that, they are in fact promoting unitary system of government. Why will INEC come and conduct election at the LG? Are you bypassing the state government?
“Ambassador Farounbi cited examples across the globe which proves that there can only be two federating units: The federal government and the state government. The state government is the sub-national. The Press is the Fourth estate of the Realm and if the Press and the Bar fail in their responsibilities in any country, forget it in that country because they are the leading lights. Most people don’t want to toe the line of rectitude, of accountability, of transparency but it is you who would point out these things. Even in recondite circumstances, it is you that must decipher the issues, analyse and educate the members of the public.”
The deputy governor gave of his experience, knowledge of law and his government’s thoughts on the issue.
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