Oyo APC seeking relevance as opposition

The All Progressive Congress (APC) lost the Oyo State governorship poll to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last year’s general elections. The Oyo APC, which was faced with intra-party crisis, prior to the polls, is now trying to find its feet as the opposition in the Southwest state. Assistant Editor LEKE SALAUDEEN examines how the party has been coping with the role.

 

OYO State was one of the few states where the All Progressives Congress (APC) lost its grip on power in the last general elections. The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) surprisingly swept the APC out of power.

The APC had ruled the state for eight years consecutively, after it displaced the PDP in the 2011 general elections.

In democracy, the opposition has a vital role to play towards achieving good governance. Experts say the success of democracy depends largely on the constructive role of the opposition party, whose main duty is to offer alternative suggestions and check the excesses of the ruling party, to prevent it from becoming authoritarian.

Observers say that Oyo APC has not been found wanting in this role since Governor Seyi Makinde took over power in May 2019.

The APC has been holding the government accountable to the people. Indeed, they say the government has had to reverse itself on certain decisions, owing to constructive criticism of the APC.

The first policy of Makinde that drew the ire of the opposition party was the dissolution of the local governments. Makinde dissolved the elected council executives within 48 hours of assumption of office in May 2019.

All the chairmen and councillors of the 33 local government areas (LGAs) and 35 local council development areas (LCDAs) were elected on the platform of the APC.

Following this development, a battle line was drawn between the government and the opposition. The opposition party vowed to defend the mandate given to his members by the people in their respective areas through legal means.

Since then, the governor and the embattled chairmen have been trading words. In December last year, Makinde appointed caretaker committees for the LGAs and LCDAs, in spite of the Supreme Court judgment that barred governors from appointing caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments.

The sacked chairmen and councillors described Makinde’s action as an act of illegality, executive rascality and an affront on the judiciary.

The leader of the sacked chairmen, Prince Ayodeji Abass-Aleshinloye described the imposition of caretaker committees on the council as an invitation to anarchy when the appeal filed by the state government is yet to be heard and a perpetual restraining order against the dissolution of elected council administration has not been vacated.

He said: “We are ready to defend our mandate popularly given by the people who elected us into the position of responsibility. You do not sit on a chair that is not vacant except the court clears the seat for you or you take the seat by force, a recipe for violence and lawlessness.

“We the elected chairmen and councillors as members of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) Oyo State have been seeking all constitutional and peaceful means to correct the illegal act of Governor Makinde , but it is now very clear that the government has decided out of its own volition to be deaf and dumb to all voices of reason and wisdom in its flagrant disobedience of court order and it is in a hurry to push Oyo State into a state of anomie, a lawless state where the rule of men does not allow rule of law to reign.”

The Attorney-General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) has called for immediate disbandment of caretaker committees appointed by Governor Makinde and restoration of elected local government representatives in Oyo State.

In a letter addressed to Oyo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Oyewo Oyelowo, the minister said “in view of the decision of the Supreme Court on the matter that is binding on all 36 states of the Federation, the common practice by some state governors in dissolving elected local government councils is unconstitutional”.

Malami urged Makinde to reverse himself over the dissolution of local government administration. The minister added that the need to immediately disband all caretaker committees and restore democratically-elected representatives to man the local governments has become obligatory.

But, Makinde advised the sacked chairmen and councillors to take their agitations over the appointment of caretaker committees to court. The governor, through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Taiwo Adisa, said no court order was violated in appointing caretaker chairmen as there was no such order restraining the state governor from running the local government system.

Makinde explained that the action of his administration in dissolving the former local government chairmen was in righting the wrong of the immediate past administration. He said the Abiola Ajimobi administration erred by violating a court order to conduct a kangaroo local government election, thereby rendering the constitution of the Oyo State ALGON null and void.

Though he acknowledged the on-going case challenging the dissolution, Makinde said his government appointed interim chairmen in order not to have a vacuum in the running of the local governments.

The governor added: “The government has looked at every aspect of that ongoing case. There is no order from the court restraining the government of Oyo State from running the local government system, despite the fact that there is a case pending in court.

The case pending will be determined by the court one day. When the case is determined, the government will look at whatever the court says and follow the dictates of the court.

“But, we cannot say that life will come to an end because the matter is in court. We cannot allow the life of the local government to come to an end because some people took the matter to court.”

The endorsement of Makende’s N10 billion infrastructural loan by the  House of Assembly was a subject of controversy between the government and the opposition.

The APC faulted the approval by the legislature, because there was no state executive in place when Makinde made such request.

The party argued that it was wrong for the House of Assembly to approve the loan at a time the governor was yet to appoint his commissioners and other members of his executive council.

The APC spokesman, Dr Abdulazeez Olatunde, said: “By Tuesday July 23, 2019, when Oyo State House of Assembly endorsed the letter from Governor Seyi Makinde to obtain a loan of N10 billion from three commercial banks, marks 55 days of assumption of office without any blueprint of the direction the PDP government is leading Oyo State.”

The questions raised by the APC were: “Can the decision to obtain such a huge loan of N10 billion be taken without the state executive council in place? Has the state budget been reviewed before the House of Assembly for the loan to be fixated to the expenditure framework component of the budget?”

Olatunde said: “The manner of passing the loan request clearly exposed the naivety of both the executive and the legislature of the present Oyo State Government. From the foregoing, it is very clear that the government of Oyo State is a one-man business.

Furthermore, APC Oyo State is in quandary as to the mindset of the people governing the state. If PDP government of Makinde could seek N10 billion loan within two months of assumption of office, how much indebtedness would they plunge Oyo State into in four years?”

But, the PDP fired back, saying the eight years of Governor Ajimobi practically ran the state aground with excessive and unjustified borrowings. It insisted that a party that produced such leadership was not qualified to criticise Govenor Makinde who it says has demonstrated financial prudence and transparency in the handling of the state’s resources.

The resistance of the APC also compelled Makinde to rescind his stop work order on the construction of the 110 kilometre Ibadan circular road project awarded by the immediate past Governor Ajimobi.

The party accused Makinde of being hypocritical in his administration’s handling of Ajimobi’s legacy projects, and wondered why the PDP-led administration was playing politics with such important legacy projects at the expense of the state.

Justifying the stop work order, Makinde said what he saw on his tour of the project was not encouraging. He said: “The agreement was signed in 2017, almost three years ago, but the work done so far was about five per cent.

Also this was a concession of about N6.5 billion for a 32-kilometre road. We just felt we need to pull back a little bit, look at things holistically and then take decision in order to move forward.”

The APC replied: “It is unfortunate that the present government is out to play unnecessary politics with everything not minding effects its action would have on the state.

What could have motivated the governor to direct virtually all his actions towards obliterating the enviable record of good governance left behind by the Ajimobi administration particularly in the areas of physical infrastructure.”

It explained that “the Ibadan Circular road project was awarded by the Ajimobi administration in 2018 without a dime coming from the government as it is being done under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

The total stretch of new road to be constructed is 110 km and not the 36km figure mischievously quoted by Governor Makinde. However, if the governor was not satisfied with the pace of work on the project, he should have invited the consortium involved to his office and sort out things with them.”

Unexpectedly, Governor Makinde reversed himself by rescinding his decision to stop work on the project. He said that the decision was taken after a review meeting held between officials of the state government and the contractor handling the project.

The governor said despite the fact that the first instinct would have been to revoke the contract based on the inexplicable slow pace of work and a number of identifiable irregularities; he would want the company to deliver the contract in line with the original contract they signed in 2017.

The proposed N8 billion reconstruction of Lagos/Iwo road interchange axis by the state government has been put on hold following the APC’s outcry. Governor Makinde had announced the government’s plan to immediately embark on the project, which would have been completed within a year.

He explained that the road when completed would decongest the area and also give the physical outlook of Ibadan a facelift.

Read Also: Oshiomhole provoking Edo people, says APC

 

The APC faulted Makinde for reeling out a contract sum for a project without any record of presentation at the State Executive Council meeting or consideration and approval by the appropriate organs of government as required by law. The opposition party wondered how the cost of N8 billion was arrived at, even when no picture of the proposed project had been shown to the world.

The APC queried: “What is the scope of the project? Where are the engineering designs that culminated in the contract sum? Was there any due diligence before the cost was arrived at? When did the consultants carry out the survey of the proposed site? Where is the bill of quantity? When did the relevant office advertise for tender?”

The opposition party said it could not understand why Makinde was desperate to commit such a huge amount of money to construct a road in an area that would be covered by two different projects already awarded by the Federal Government.

The APC said there are strong indications that the ongoing reconstruction of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway would take care of the expansion of the interchange. It also said the recently awarded rehabilitation of the Ibadan-Ife Expressway by the Federal Government would cover the remaining portion of the axis.

Adebayo shittu

Responding, the PDP said the criticism by the APC was a clear indication of the disregard shown towards that road by the immediate past government was sanctioned by the leaders of the APC.

The ruling PDP said it was a clear case of insensitivity to the plight of commuters who daily waste lots of man-hours trying to wade through the traffic around the interchange.

It described the APC’s position as utter disregard for the state’s economy, which had been bleeding as a result of loss of several man-hours due to traffic congestion at the interchange.

The opposition party has also faulted the claim of the Makinde administration on the refunds of N24.6 million made to Oyo State pilgrims, who performed hajj in Saudi Arabia in 2019. APC stated that the refund was made by the National Hajj Commission (NAHCOM), Abuja over payment made to it by the individual pilgrims during the registration for the 2019 exercise.

The APC Assistant Publicity Secretary, Prince Ayobami Adejumo, said: “It is quite disturbing that a governor could tell blatant lie that he made refunds to hajj pilgrims when he did not do so.

The refund, in question, was made by NAHCOM and same was done for all the over 95,000 pilgrims from across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at the completion of the 2019 exercise.”

Since then, there has been no response from the state government and the challenge over the female pilgrim from Oyo State who absconded in Saudi Arabia.

Adejumo said one would have expected the governor to take responsibility for the absconded pilgrim but he had chosen to lie about refund.

Olatunde said APC would not relent in constructive criticism of the PDP administration in Oyo State. He added: “We shall continue to educate and guide them on good governance, so that they don’t destroy the legacies left behind by the Ajimobi administration.”