My story titled ” Why The Centre Could No Longer Hold For Makinde” is generating massive headaches within the camp of the Governor.
I have however been wondering why those who have either been out to defend the Governor or to attack me for daring to state my candid opinion chose to take the story from the angle of the ” massive wind”.
Is it that some people have caught the phobia of the wind?
Reference to the massive wind is in the opening paragraph of the said write up.
Unfortunately for those who hates the wind, we are in the raining season and a lot of intense wind will still blow.
First was one Gbenga Akanni who got lost in the delusions of anger that he forgot to concentrate on the job given to him.
Only himself knows how he came about the idea that I do not exist under a name I have been carrying for over fifty years, even in public offices.
I have dealt more than enough with his lazy rhetorics.
However, I must say that I am impressed with the latest defender of the Governor who goes by the name Agbeke Adegoke.
Her defence which centres mostly on my opinion about Governor Makinde’s reaction to the Supreme court judgment is beautiful to read.
She does appear to me to be a Lawyer or at least someone who has some grasp of the legal profession.
Unfortunately, I must engage her and counter her misconceptions.
Correctly, she established the facts that the Justices of the Supreme court are not infallible.
She was also correct that the Supreme court could overrule Itself.
She made heavy weather about the minority Judgment by one of the Justices of the Supreme court who had a dissenting opinion to the majority Judgment of six justices and felt that should be enough reason for Governor Makinde to describe the judgment of the Apex Court as a distraction and one which could be complied with in a manner that pleases the Governor.
I will like to say here that the infallibility of the Justices of the Supreme court has been decided by the Supreme court Itself.
The Justices of the Apex Court have maintained that they are not final because they are infallible but that they are however infallible because they are final.
There must be an end to litigation. If the Supreme court keeps entertaining every complaints against Its Judgment, when will there be end to litigation?
I will establish a nexus with this later on in this piece.
I will take the issue of the power of the Supreme court to reverse Itself together with the insinuations of Mrs. Adegoke about the dissenting Judgment.
I agree that the Apex Court do, in very exceptional circumstances, possess the power to review cases and overrule Itself.
However, there must be certain ingredients that constitutes exceptional circumstances and certain standards have been set.
The fact that there is a dissenting opinion doesn’t automatically constitute an exceptional circumstance.
Dissenting Judgments are orbital dictum and I’m sure Mrs. Adegoke knows they have no value. They are academic.
Mrs. Adegoke seems to have overlooked the reasons I adduced for criticizing the reaction of the Governor about the judgment.
Judgments of courts are sensitive documents and until you see and read through a Certified True Copy of it, whatever you say about it will amount to hearsays.
By the time Governor Makinde described the judgment as a ” distraction” and the time he was constituting Committees to review the said Judgment, he himself admitted to not having seen a CTC of the judgment.
So, whatever he was doing at that point was speculative and suspicious.
How did he determine that the judgment he hasn’t seen has created a lacuna in the Constitution?
If Governor Makinde wishes to test his opinion about perceived lacuna in the Constitution as a result of the judgment, shouldn’t he just briefed his Lawyers to go back before the Supreme court instead of calling a stakeholders meeting to discuss modalities for complying with the judgment to suit ” home grown realities”.
When he was going to oppose financial Autonomy for Oyo Local Governments, did he ask for the opinions of the stakeholders?
Is it now that the Supreme court has ruled against his position that he will need stakeholders to determine his next move?
We are not all fools. Governor Makinde should carry his cross. No one mandated him to oppose financial Autonomy for Local Governments.
If he had sought and obtained approval of the stakeholders before opposing the Autonomy, then, no one will complain but his decision was purely personal.
Since he never sought the opinions of the people of Oyo state and neither did he convoke any stakeholders forum before standing against financial Autonomy for the Local Governments, the cross arising from his failures should naturally be carried alone.
Mrs. Adegoke also talked about how she thought the Governor has made a “nifty business” worthy of praise if it is true that he used Local Government funds as collateral to obtain loans.
According to her, so far such loans are being used to pay civil servants and are being paid back without complaints from the lending Banks, then, the Governor deserves to be commended, as if the said money belongs to the Governor personally.
Thank goodness, Mrs. Adegoke did not say she is working for the Governor and neither did she say she has the authority to speak for the Governor.
If she were someone working for Governor Makinde, I am sure she would have been sacked for saying such jargons.
Local Government funds? As collateral to obtain loans to pay civil servants? Which civil servants? Local Government staffs or those in the state civil service?
In the first place, should Governor Makinde have access to those funds?
How could the Governor use the funds of the Local Governments to obtain loans when he ought to have nothing to do with the money in first instance?
It is a serious allegations which the Governor dare not confirm.
Such illegalities are committed in the dark and no one, not even Governor Makinde will dare own up to being involved in such. I am sure it is overzealousness on the part of Mrs. Adegoke that made her make such reckless statements.
She also tried to justify the fact that there is nothing wrong in the Governor spending the Local Governments funds to make roads and build hospitals on behalf of the Chairmen.
Mrs. Adegoke must be living in the clouds.
There is no Law that empowers the Governor of any state to spend the funds for Local Governments on behalf of the Council Chairmen.
Such an action is not only illegal, it is also criminal.
Local Government Chairmen are not called accounting officers of the Local Governments for the fun of it.
If there is any issue with the funds of any local Government, the Chairman is the one who will be called to account not the Governor.
So, how could you be justified to be spending funds you won’t account for?
Adegoke made heavy weather about Governor Makinde’s position concerning Constitutional federalism.
She decried a situation where the president will be too powerful but she seems to overlook the fact that the state Governors have been killing the Local Governments under the previous arrangements.
At any rate, Governor Makinde’s position on federalism and Adegoke’s pontifications are irrelevant.
The Supreme court has laid that to rest.
Adegoke also said the Governor doesn’t appear to look like he has lost anything by the judgment.
If that is the case, then why the fuss? The Governor should comply with the judgment and allow us to move on.
Governor Makinde doesn’t appear like someone who won’t lose something by the position of the Apex Court.
His utterances and Body language is enough to prove that.
I am saddened and disappointed that people like Adegoke feels there is no big deal in spending the resources of the state on needles litigations that only serves personal ego.
Her remarks about Governor Makinde becoming a champion of sort if he could overturn the judgment of the Apex Court smacks of insensitivity.
It looks like she doesn’t know that this needles litigations consume lots of resources and that they are not from the Governor’s personal purse.
Only God knows how much the Governor wasted on litigations when he illegally sacked the Chairmen elected during late Ajimobi’s tenure.
Sadly, the costs of the litigations could have been considerably reduced if Governor Makinde had listened to the Supreme court through the then Federal Attorney general.
His refusal to comply with the directives of the Supreme court in time cost the state a lot in billions.
I don’t know how any reasonable person will justify the waste of public resources on personal egoistic pursuit.
Citizens of Oyo state have embraced the judgment of the Supreme court.
Oyo NULGE is not complaining, to the best of my knowledge.
The Local Government Career officers have no issues with the judgment.
Even the Local Government Chairmen have not said they’re not pleased with the judgment.
Whose interest is the Governor fighting tooth and nails to defend?
The fact that the Governor has continued to fight a personal battle on this matter should satisfy the curiosities of Mrs Adegoke as to whether the Governor stands to lose anything by the judgment of the Supreme court.
SOLA ABEGUNDE.
