Advocates of council autonomy are enemies of federalism, says Aregbesola

Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola has objected to the clamour for local government autonomy, saying that it is antithetical to true federalism.

He said local councils are administrative units of the state, adding that their autonomy may be the end of the states.

Aregbesola spoke at the one-day conference on the second anniversary of the Southwest in national governance held in Osogbo, the state capital. Its theme was: Southwest to Abuja: A mid-term appraisal.

He recalled that, while settling for federalism, Nigeria’s founding fathers copied the Indian example, where the federating units are coordinate with the central government.

The governor said: “In India, we have a state that is more than Nigeria in size and population. We also have Goa, which is not more than Lagos as a state. The large states cannot dominate smaller states. California cannot dictate to Arkansas.  The Federal Government in the United States cannot interfere in what happens in other states, unless it is invited.

“Also, under the federal system, the Federal Government cannot interfere in the activities of the local government. Those calling for local government autonomy are agents of confusion. I know there are anomalies with the local government administration.. But, it does not mean that it should be autonomous under the state. It is against the spirit of federalism. Whenever the states cease to control the council, that will be the end of the state.”

Aregbesola emphasized that Nigeria is not just a republic, but it is a Federal Republic of Nigeria. Also, he said the name of the central government is Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He lent his voice to the sustenance of party supremacy, saying party supremacy, which is difficult under the presidential system, is possible under the parliamentary system.

Aregbesola said: “Presidential system is too expensive. It may lead to doom.”

Noting that “economy is government,” the governor said the over-dependence on the petro-dollar economy is counter-productive.

He added: “766.5 million dolars is realised per year. It is 4.85 barrels per head o five. This means 250 dollars per head; N100,000 per years, N8.00 per month. That is the source of national poverty. But, because less than one million people share the money, that’s why it appears that the country is rich.

“What’s the way out? If one million people works and earns N25,000 per month in Osun, the state will be able to to get taxes and it will be rich.”

According to the communique at th conference, the decision of the Southwest progressives to participate at governance in the centre was a turning point in history. The communique reads: “Conferees deliberated on the main theme of the Conference, that is, an appraisal of the place of the Southwest in national political equation, the issues of economic development and the place of Osun State in the anchoring of development initiatives in the last six years and, the idea of federalising political parties in Nigeria.

“The Southwest’s relative importance in the federation of Nigeria is such that it stands in a better stead in the continuance and stability of the federation and not in its disintegration. That the Southwest has nonetheless in the about the last thirty years judging by the physical development and the distribution of infrastructure from the Federal centre to the states regressed significantly from being a leading region in the country to a position less than what she occupied before the 1970s.

“The constitutional amendment to reflect significant transfer of power from the centre especially as contained in the Second Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As Amended) to the States, would be an antidote to the regression of the Western part of Nigeria.

“The most significant way by which development can be more meaningful to the people of Nigeria is to transfer resources from the few and the privileged to the majority of the pole through a system of welfare and social safety nets.

“The Government of the State of Osun has in the last six years significantly transferred public resources to the ordinary man and the majority of its citizens through its social welfare programmes such as O’Yes, O’Meal, O’Rehab, Agba Osun and Women Empowerment. An additional and effective way of transferring resources to the ordinary man would and should be through the capital budget in which resources are not spent on recurrent expenditure by paying salaries, overhead and wages alone but also on the simultaneous creation of physical infrastructure by which the majority of the people can be reached.

“Political parties in Nigeria and the leadership thereof should reflect our federal character and that leadership should be progressive from the grassroots to the state and federal levels.

“The political orientation is not new to the western part of Nigeria but that there is the need to avoid falling into conservative and reactionary politics into which the southwest fell during 2003-2011.

“The solution to the current political debate on restructuring can only be resolved in favour of the continuance and growth of Nigeria and not in its dissolution but more important also, in the adjustment of both constitutional and tax powers to reflect the urgent need to devolve power to the federating units and cut the 9xcesses of federal intervention in those matters that are purely regional or local.”

The post Advocates of council autonomy are enemies of federalism, says Aregbesola appeared first on The Nation Nigeria.