Posted by By Louis Odion on
The war of words between the presidency and Lagos State Government continued at the weekend with Governor Bola Tinubu accusing President Olusegun Obasanjo of paying back a good turn in 2002 with evil in 2005.
The war of words between the presidency and Lagos State Government continued at the weekend with Governor Bola Tinubu accusing President Olusegun Obasanjo of paying back a good turn in 2002 with evil in 2005.
Last Sunday, the president had accused Tinubu of being "obdurate" by not reverting to the old 20 councils in the state, which, according to him, is reponsible for the continued withholding of council fund due to the state since last year.
In a swift reaction, Tinubu insisted that the state would not "kill" the new councils, adding that his perceived stubborness is a trait he inherited from Obasanjo as "our father."
Addressing a group of journalists Thursday in Lagos to commemorate the twelve anniversary of June 12, Governor Tinubu revealed that but for the agreement he and five other governors of Alliance for Democracy (AD) not to hold council polls in 2002 as constitutionally required, Obasanjo "would have been humiliated."
According to him, if the AD governors had gone ahead to organise the local elections after the three-year term of the council chairmen expired on May 29, 2002, "You can be sure AD would have won landslide in the South-west. Then, people in PDP would have continued to make jest of Obasanjo that he did not have a home-base.
"They sent people to us to beg not to hold local elections that year. They sent our leaders (Afenifere) to us. They invited us to Dodan Barracks to beg us. Because we AD governors felt Obasanjo is a Yoruba man who should not be disgraced, we played along. I campaigned for Obasanjo.
"Now, the president is saying he cannot pay councils in Lagos because the names of the councils are yet to be listed at the National Assembly. That he is defending the constitution. But the same president paid us when we hand-picked people to rule the councils between 2002 and 2003 without elections. Then, he was also upholding the constitution.
"Mr. President is being misled by gossips from people like Bode George and Adeseye Ogunlewe. If there is any death rumour today, they will say it is Bola Tinubu that is behind it. If dog barks at them in Abuja, they will say it is Bola Tinubu that caused it. If their wives refuse to greet them in the morning, they will say ‘Oh!, Tinubu is responsible'.
"But George and Ogunlewe got their positions today because of the votes I personally helped the president to achieve."
While insisting that his government would not go back on the creation of the 37 new councils, he also vowed that nothing would make him and his government recognise May 29 instead of June 12 as Democracy Day.
Describing the administration of Obasanjo as a civilian dictatorship, he posited that "no government that is serious about alleviating poverty will seize N30 billion of a very populous and economically very important state like Lagos for petty political reasons.
"There can be no going back on the 37 new local government councils in Lagos State. They were created legally as affirmed by the Supreme Court and to nullify them will be an assault on the rule of law.
"Our people have continued to support us firmly on this issue despite the hardship inflicted on them because they know the councils were created in their interest."
Tinubu urged Nigerians to "speak up forcefully against the ongoing transformation of our hard-won democracy into a civilian dictatorship. A civilian dictatorship that disregards the constitution from which its supposed mandate is derived is as bad as if not worse than a military dictatorship."
Speaking further, the Lagos State governor said persistent disrespect to the rule of law, particularly by the Federal Government, constitutes the biggest threat to the nation's democracy.
He accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led Federal Government of showing utter disregard to the judiciary and warned that "once judicial decisions are ignored or treated with contempt, might becomes right and society gradually begins to degenerate to anarchy.
"It is unfortunate that it is under this democracy which we fought so hard for that we now have a president who is openly treating a landmark Supreme Court judgement with contempt.
"There is also the case of the PDP national chairman who has openly said that the party will not respect a court judgement that Governor Chris Ngige is still a member of the party.
"Similarly, the Minister of works, Senator Adeseye Ogunleye, has been arrogantly violating a Supreme Court judgement which clearly asserts the right of Lagos State to control and plan our environment. All of these acts of lawlessness are gradually undermining our democracy and creating a basis for the re-emergence of dictatorship."
To him, these acts are also inimical to the current crusade against corruption in the country, insisting that "any meaningful war against corruption must go beyond hypocritical moral posturing. No one who does not respect the rule of law has the moral right to condemn corruption.
"How can we claim to be fighting corruption while imposing macro-economic policies that deepen poverty and indirectly breeds more corruption?
"If we are serious about fighting corruption, why the silence on how those public officers who paid huge sums of money to purchase government houses in Ikoyi got the money in the first place?"
MKO's immortalisation
On June 12, Tinubu said "it represents the struggle for Nigeria's liberation from internal colonialism following the independence from external colonialism in 1960.
"On the day of election there were no intimidations. You counted us on the spot and you know the result. The agents had copied of the results. The peoples sovereignty was pressured. The dignity, the character, the process was strong.
Now, compare that with what brazen rigging we witnessed under PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) in 2003. It is simply sad.
"It is unfortunate that even though the present democracy is the fruit of the struggle for June 12 and the sacrifices of millions of our people, the PDP controlled Federal Government continues to ignore this reality.
"To imortalise Abiola, people are recommending that Abuja stadium be named after him because he was a great sportsman and his great contributions to sports and the economy. The refusal of Federal Government to imortalise him is not acceptable. It is unfortunate. But you can't legislate morality.
‘‘But the current administration fails to do it, so be it. Another administration will come some day that will do the right thing. As long as the agitation is sustained, have lectures, symposia. I believe a day will come when a national government will imortalise him. It is not too late.
"In Lagos State, we will never allow the memory of June 12 to die. We will not rest on our oars till the ideals of June 12 which include a truly free, democratic and federal Nigeria are realized.
"If any legacy is to be established by Mr. President, he will have to leave his followers and his political party and join the rest of Nigerians to say no to rigging in the coming elections. If he is truly committed to accountability, honesty, transparency and dignity of office, then he must make sure that the year 2007 elections goes down as the most transparent and most successful in the history of this nation. Then he would have left a good legacy but if they continue with the abuse of power and rigging and malpractices, you now make laws that target opposition, then they would have destroyed this country."
Political solution to withheld council fund logjam?
"The leaders from South-west and some eminent Nigerians are now exploring the possibility of a political solution. I don't want to mention names. Some are working behind the scene. They are looking for a way out. I will not object to that as long as it is consistent to some degree that we did not abuse Supreme Court judgment. You can always find a way out of that and that is what I told the leaders too."
F.G's Nazi tactics against Lagos
"The PDP-controlled Federal Government has been pursuing policies designed to kill Lagos. Go and check their own account. They said in the last six years, they have spent between N700 billion and N800 billion on water nationwide. But Lagos did not receive a kobo from this allocation.
"All the water supply and water scheme enjoyed here in Lagos today are sponsored by the state government, no assistance from Federal Government. Since 1999, no Federal assistance.
"Initially, they were even giving us stipends from the ecological fund that is a national purse. After 2003, not a dime, despite all the flood, ecological disaster, the level of refuse and population that we cater for in Lagos. We get no grant. As per Education tax fund, 65% of that fund is collected from the economic activities of Lagos State. But Lagos does not enjoy up to 10% of that fund and it is not even given to the state government. They award the contracts from Abuja to themselves through themselves, to their stooges.
"Even with UBE, they award the contract from Abuja. Billions of naira is being spent on UBE, reports, researches. They will award the contract and ask me to look for the land. So many of these contracts are done shoddily, substandard, grossly exaggerated and there is no supervision.
"They even called me to participate in designing a programme to free Nigerians from poverty through the poverty alleviation programme. We set the system up in 2003. Then, N10 billion evaporated and not a single kobo is traceable to Lagos State directly. Public funds were used for political patronage. Now, we can preach morality from morning till night. But what do we call this.
"Ditto VAT. What you call VAT is a consummation tax. Lagos has the highest level. It used to be sales tax from the states. In a federalism, that is the residual power of the state. Because they bear the brunt of that economic activities. The military pretended that the collection process was wrong, that local government and states were mismanaging it. So, they began to collect and take only 10%, giving back to you what is collected from your state.
"Now, they made it a national item. You are now preventing us from establishing what is a residual activity in our state. Meanwhile, we bear the brunt here. The brunt of the population, the brunt of refuse, housing, transportation, environmental degredation. Now go up land, you see the effect of environmental pollution on our waters, through oil spillage. The water used to be blue. Now, it is black. Then, you have Ejigbo depot, go and take samples of that water. We will soon take samples to the United Nations. Both the oil companies and Federal Government are guilty, including the NNPC. No compensation to our fishermen, no risk analysis for our environment, no potable drinking water for the poor in those areas. They are exposed to so much dangers. In the coastline of the Niger Delta, all the coastline areas are suffering from various pollution and spillage activities.
"The case of Lagos is compounded because it has the premium discharged here. It is destroying the agro-fishery sector. Where is the cleaning up activity? United Nations gives money. We are supposed to be under a donor scheme for even environment assistance. But not a single kobo has come to Lagos directly."
Ogunlewe's nuisance has cost Lagos N40 billion
"Ogulewe's negative activities have cost Lagos over N40 billion. They deny the N7 billion we spent on the roads, now all the money that would have derived to the Lagos from ecology, water, and education. he would go and gossip to the president that ‘Bola did this and that.'
" They award the contract from Abuja to their cronies without the knowledge of the state. Some of the projects are now abandoned. I can take you to one of the ware-houses where some of the equipment are abandoned.
" Go to Apapa-Oshodi, where some vehicle got stuck, go and take the pictures. How can a sane person continue to paint the railings on the highways in the rain. It is in attempt to waste squander public fund. They award contracts to paint bridges. Oh! my God. Of course, that is Ogunlewe's specialty. Wherever he is, he always scramble to award contracts. Contracts and contracts.
"The other day, he was named among those who bought government building. Yes, the official lodge of the Works Minister. He was listed among those that had paid before the president cancelled it. Now, you set a verification panel and put the same man as the head. What are we talking about? Of course, the first thing he did was to award contract for a consultant to check the list, something that the ministry had earlier spent public funds to do. The same man was earlier fingered in the scandal.
"Now, you begin to wonder where is the Mr. President who is fighting corruption?"