- says INEC can not conduct LG Polls
By Tomi Lala, Sola Isola
The Chairman of Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC) Barr. Hashim Akintunde Abioye Esq has stated that all 18 political parties in the state has indicated interest to participate in the forthcoming Local Government election in the state adding that it is unprecedented in the history of Osun.
He made this disclosure in an interview with newsmen after a panel interview organized by League of Veteran Journalist at the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) Conference Centre on Wednesday in Osogbo, the Osun state capital.
He said, “Unprecedented, all 18 political parties in the state are participating in the election.
“Well, our own arrangements is not a rush rush arrangement, you will see that before the judgement of the supreme court was ever conceived, not to talk of being filed at all, we have issued the notice of election and when the judgement came, we had to adjust and in one way or the other. We adjusted the timetable to allow for more inclusiveness, so we are not in anyway rushing anything at all.
“As you can see, we distributed guidelines and voters education to all participants in the hall, that is to tell you that we are more than prepared for the election ahead, so in the next couple of weeks we will start recruitment of ad-hoc staff and training of those staff. And we will carry all the relevant stakeholders along in every step.”
Abioye further stated going by the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria does not allow the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct Local Government elections adding that the Supreme Court judgement basically excluded states from receiving funds on behalf of local government.
He noted that according to the constitution, local governments ate tied to the houses of assembly, clarifying that it means they cannot spend any money without getting approval from the State House of Assembly
“You cannot spend a Kobo from the purse of LG without informing or appropriated by the house of assembly.
“All funds given to a local government should go to each LG directly without first landing in the purse of an agent or a Middleman, that is just the decision of supreme court.
“But, how would they spend this funds? Some people in abroad are now saying, Oh, it is time to come home to become the chairman of my local government because of financial autonomy. If there’s financial autonomy, does it mean that without any agency supervising you, you just dip your hands into the Treasury of the local government and be spending anyhow?
“Let me tell you this, go and check the constitution, the local government is tied like a bone is tied to a neck of a dog, local government is tied to the house of assembly.
“You cannot spend a Kobo from the purse of LG without informing or appropriated by the house of assembly. The supreme court has not remove the house of assembly from appropriating.
“I don’t know why people are doing this, it one of the areas that I’m feeling so uncomfortable being in this position because there’s a limit to what I can say now but i will say this; I don’t know why people are being so mysterious, so are you saying if you become LG chairman today, because of local government financial autonomy.
“Infact the judgment of the supreme court only came as an excutory decision, to execute the pronouncial of the supreme court in the past, it is not to say that if you’re a LG chairman you can do without the house of assembly”, he added.
He continued by urging everyone to check functions of local governments in the constitution, so as to know more about the Local Government autonomy.
“The first question I ask some people is that go and check the functions of the local governments in the constitution, and if you’re talking about the functions of local government, that’s the only area of the legislative competence on the Local council. That means the councilors cannot go outside those area and that’s about rates, taxes, market stores, public toilet, they can construct roads in the local government, they can do street light or agricultural program but all these must be with the approval of the house of assembly, it’s in the constitution.
“So if your funds come, you cannot do anything about it unless you go through the budgetary line and who will appropriate? It is the house of assembly. All the staff of the local government are staff of the Local Government service commission which is a state executive body.
“Salaries of teachers, primary school teachers, SUBEB owns primary school teacher, SUBEB is a state executive body and their salaries are from the local governments, chieftaincy affairs are affairs of the state, and their salaries allowances are from the local governments and these are state executive bodies, so what are we saying?
“The decision of the supreme court is basically about telling state that state do not collect funds on behalf of LG again but let us check section 7(3) of the constitution, that is the area, and I don’t know why none of the state in the federation has been doing that, what they have been doing is that joint account, they’re paying attention to the section 161 of the constitution only. Check section 7(3) of the constitution, it talks about the house of assembly establishing a LG economy planning and development board.
“I believe Osun State House of Assembly is on the verge of doing that now, to establish a Local governments Economy Planning and Development Board and the members will be all the Chairmen of the Local Governments, through that board they can do anything, they can do joint project, they can contribute money, like they did in establishing Uniosun.
“Not that local governments will just be spending anyhow. That’s just it”, he noted.
The OSSIEC Chairman, also carefully explained that the appointment of electoral bodies was thorough and fair, and they are constitutionally fit to be chosen.
“I want to tell you that the process of appointments was thorough,was fair and was in accordant to laid down procedure, so we are constitutional fit to be so appointed and we have been so appointed. So that’s about the fairness and thoroughness of the process.
“But if I may add this, you May want to talk about the issue of Partisanship with respect to the chief executive of the state being the appointor, that is how the constitution has designed it. I don’t know why so many havoc have been fallen on the state electoral bodies why not on the national electoral body. It is the president who will appoint, we have seen instances where people took petition to the National assembly that so so person has been a member or still a member of a particular political party and this person have been nominated as an electoral commissioner and petitions flooded the national assembly.
“So that is to say that, in so far the constitutional process has been duly followed, there shouldn’t be any worry at all.
“Let me tell you, if you’re a politician and you come to this body today, you become a member of an electoral body whether at the national or state level, the system has been so designed that it will drain off the partisanship in you. The system will automatically drain it, Even if you want to continue to be partisan, it will not be possible.
“So we should look at it not only from the angle of state electoral body, we should look at it at the larger picture. It is about commitment,it is about upholding the ethics and the tenet of your mandate once you find yourself in position like this”, he stated.
He, however pressed further by assuring that there will be adequate security, during the election not only for journalist, but for all citizens.
“The security arrangements on ground is not only about journalist, it’s for all citizens and all stakeholders in the electoral process and once you’re a stakeholder in the electoral process, the security arrangements will definitely be covered for you. In the electoral process we have electoral management body, we have political bodies,we have candidates, we have the electorates, we have the media, we have all other stakeholders, all other union, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, security arrangements are put in place.
“OSSIEC has designed a program call Election 2CD, Campaign against Election 2CD, the two C there is cybercrime cultism and drug abuse, if these three are taken care of properly, you won’t hear of any violence at any election and OSSIEC is up to the task and we have designed that program and we are rolling it out as part of our program you will see this program, side by side with other arrangements that we have towards the election.
“I assure you that the security arrangements we have on ground is topnotch that you will appreciate at the end of the day”, he added.
