Oladimeji Salako has scored the scored the government of Prince Dapo Abiodun low saying the governor has performed poorly in the last one year when he took reins of power in Ogun State.
Oladimeji Salako who was the keynote speaker at a lecture organized by a socio-political group, Good Governance Agenda, on the theme; “Knock the Door and It Shall Be Opened: Reviewing the Aftermath of a Year of Consistent Knocks- A case of Aworiland, Ogun state”, said it is rather paradoxical that ‘democratic administration’ is being celebrated without a satisfactory evidence of its elements and properties being in practice.
He said, federalism in Nigeria, is by design a three (3) levels of government – central, state, and local governments with each legally constituted to carry-out the functions and activities of government in their prescribed geographical territory.
In his argument, what was enshrined in the constitution is a local government and not ‘local administration’. A local administration explains as the “appointment” (and not election) of politicians to manage local councils and to whose allegiance is giving to the appointer and not the people as it ought to be in a local government. Thus; it is perturbing and rather devastating that a one year in office will be celebrated without a local government.
He defined a local government in his lecture as; a legally established sub divisional political organization managed by elected politicians who are expected to independently but cooperatively act in carrying out the functions of government at the lowest level of the state. Giving this definition, the current practice in Ogun state contradicts every theory and practices of a local government system, that includes but not limited to – election of council managers, devolution of power, financial autonomy, checks and balances etc.
He stated further, that,
the Governor has much more shown his lack of interest for creating a democracy
that provides the people the opportunity to elect who should administer their
socio-economic and political lives in their peculiar local territories as
enshrined in the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. Therefore, a
democratic administration that fails to create the environment for a
representative government, quality grassroots development, as well as providing
the platform for democratic practices should not distinguished itself as a
democratic government.
Sadly, albeit with the aid of what he termed “neopatrimonialism” which implies
the practices of using state resources to influence the legislators for the
personal gains of the executive. The legislators have corruptly ridiculed the
legislative chamber in such that their fundamental goal of checking the
excesses of the executive is dangerously missing.
Meanwhile, in a democracy, governance should be seen as the supply of the demands aspired by the people. However, people can only aspire for such demands from those they have entrusted with power, and not impostors; a system he refer to as militocracy or the militarization of democracy. Militocracy is a skewed and corrupt system that implies constituted authority handpicking politicians to manage public offices against the established laws guiding such offices.
It is however repugnant that the local government in Ogun state is currently being managed by “strange” individuals under the guise of a questionably crafted ‘local government transitioning committee” consisting of state proteges who represent the interest of their patrons and not the people as it ought to be. If election which should be the hallmark of democracy is this underplayed, it brings into question the integrity of the current government towards democracy, he concluded. 0C0A�U���i_
