Nullification of 33 LCDAs In Ondo State : Much Ado About Nothing – Olasumbo Faseesin Esq
It was never gonna work. It’s just a melodramatic display for purpose of Politics. We knew this from the outset. To start with, where’s the fund to finance 33LCDAs in Ondo State?. Although an oil producing State, the good people of Ondo State who live by the river bank still wash hands with spittle. How sad and devastating?
Hence, it died naturally and as evidenced by the Akure High Court pronouncement of yesterday. In any case, Mr. Aiyedatiwa who succeeded the late Arakunrin wasn’t interested otherwise the Attorney General could have filed a counter suit or, desire to go on appeal but nothing prevailed until judgment was delivered yesterday .
The judgement served to nullify and declare illegal the creation of additional 33 LCDAs in Ondo State. Whichever way, nothing meaningful had happened with the LCDAs and I presume it was an aborted promise of the last administration that went into still birth. Perhaps to satisfy political expediency & exigencies or, the pressured demands & interests of some persons. If any LCDA will arise out of the 18 Local Government known to the 1999 Constitution(as amended), it must bear semblance of the minimum requirements of equity, justice & fairness for all the Senatorial Districts across the state and obviously the requirement of meaningful justification for additional creation. The ingredients outlined by the constitution are not only valid requirements but a condition precedent for any reasonable creation of additional Local government. Hence, let no man gloat over what was non-existent in the first place. Whether or, not a court ruled, the 33LCDAs could not have survived for lack of funds which is a major criterion among others. This is not Lagos State where the IGR could even serve as another State’s Allocation. Prominently, we had the experience with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu when in 1999 he held sway as the Lagos State Governor under President Olusegun Obasanjo who consistently starved and deliberately denied Lagos State the accrued & approved allocation but the Lagos State Governor sought alternative funding to keep the LCDAs going by increasing it Internally generated revenue. The LCDAs are still breathing until date. These are instances upon which additional LCDAs could be created and perhaps survive… Creation is not just by words of mouth or, crafted letters on paper. It is in deed and otherwise practical responsibility to nurse and grow into reality these LCDAs. Lagos State remains a precedent since the 1999 transition from Military interregnum.
In view of the above, and the obvious uninterested nature or, conduct of Mr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa who never saw the additional 33LCDAs as a project to continue, it must naturally die and the Court in effect has made same official. The yesterday verdict of the High Court is just a mere physical manifestation of a non existent LCDA!
We move on. Only men of good conscience must rule or, govern the people.
Olasumbo Faseesin Esq
