By Austin Ogwuda
HUMAN Rights Activist and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission in Nigeria, Professor Chidi Odinaka says that Thursday’s Supreme Court judgment in granting autonomy to Local Government Councils in the country cannot prevent power-drunk State governors from fiddling with the local government funds.
Odinkalu stated this while commenting on the Supreme Court judgement on Channels Television programme tagged ‘Politics Today’ on Thursday night.
He said that the judgment has no effect as it would only alter the means through which the Governors get the funds because they (Governors) handpick those who become the Council Chairmen through rigged elections.
His words, “A Local Government Council who has been installed in a rigged election controlled entirely by the Governor will give the fund back to the Governor.
What this person is going to do is to collect the money and hand it back to the Governor. So, all they are doing is altering the sequence by which the money will go back to the Governor. But the money still goes back to the Governor.
“And the reason the money will go back to the Governor is because the mandate as a matter of jurisprudence set up by the Supreme Court is not with the people. The mandate is in the politicians’ hands. Until we address this, we are wasting time and efforts.
“If they said that they will not give money to Caretaker Chairmen, the President (Bola Tinubu) went through the same thing with Obasanjo. Obasanjo held up their money when he (Tinubu) was the Governor of Lagos State. If that is the consequence they want to live with they want to afflict others with, we live by the swing of the pendulum. It may take one decade or 20 years but it will turn around”, he added.