By Ayo Fadaka, Head of Media to H E Agboola Ajayi.
Our attention has again been drawn to the reaction of the political camp of Governor Luck Ayedatiwa to our last statement in which we firmly established that he is suffering from “poverty of ideas” and mercifully, this reaction further re-pronounced and re-echoed that fact.
The Ayedatiwa administration and Campaign seems not to understand the groundnorm upon which His Excellency, Agboola Ajayi continues to base his criticism of Government on, and it’s vital that we again provide elementary education for them on this score.
That judgement says that because the bill was signed into law in Ibadan, it violates the territorial integrity of the State, therfore null and void.
For the avoidance of doubt, this remains the compelling reason why we say Government must appeal that decision. If it remains instructive that Governor Lucky Ayedatiwa does not loose his constitutionally dictated immunity each time he steps out of Ondo State, it means his ranking as Governor is not limited to the territorial confines of our State alone.
For the umpteenth time, we must remind the Governor and his team that assignments and official responsibilities dictate that Governors travel outside their States in pursuance of sundry goals, and when they do, the constitutional responsibilities of their office remains intact, resides within them and will thus discharge such, wherever as at when due and that is what late Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu did when he gave assent to the LCDA law in Ibadan.
Again we must underscore that the letter that transmitted power to Lucky Ayedatiwa as acting Governor was not written in Akure, but sent from the late Governor’s sick bed in Germany, so why for any insidious reason(s) will Ayedatiwa allow any jejune reason to curtail the constitutional powers of the Governor by not appealing the verdict of that Akure High Court?
For instance, the Council of State meetings, NEC meetings holds in the Presidency, Abuja and even the Governor’s Forum meetings that hold anywhere in the country, Governors enter into commitments on behalf of their States and sign documents in that regard, therefore, such actions by the Ondo State Governor will remain illegal as far as the verdict which nullified the LCDA law is concerned, if not appealed and overturned, this is the simple lesson H E Agboola Ajayi has been trying to teach H E Lucky Ayedatiwa and we hope he learns quickly that what he thinks is a delicious pot of soup today does not become an albatross tomorrow.
Ayedatiwa must also learn from our recent history that Presidents Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari signed bills into law on their sick beds abroad and such laws remain in force today because the powers and authority vested in the President remained in force with them while in power, irrespective of wherever they were in the world. This again underscores the institutionality of powers of the office of the Preident and Governors is deeply ingrained in the person holding them.
In Britain for instance, we saw that power of the monarchy was still upon the late Queen Elizabeth up to the point of her internment before it was eventually removed from her corpse.
With our summation so far on the LCDA issue, we are sure we have taught a lesson and will not say additional words any longer.
While we do not begrudge Ayedatiwa and his team over their gloating of creation of new eleven judicial divisions, we need to let them know that the Governor merely assented to a proposal from the Judiciary that desires expansion so as to guarantee the portability of justice delivery, we do not see how a routine discharge of administrative responsibilities can become a solid achievement of an administration that is in office for that purpose.
Obviously, Ondo State is currently at its very low ebb, people who do not possess remote understanding of how government works now parade the corridors of power and invade our space with inanities, imagine Sunday Olugbenga Abire, Special Assistant to the Governor not knowing the difference between an election and a plebiscite, that further confirms that poverty of ideas remains prevalent in this administration.
It is in view of this that we demand from the people of this State to take due cognisance of the cesspool of errors that now characterise governance in our State.
We desire a Government that will work for the people and accentuate their interests, for instance, of the four States under the BEDC, the electricity company serving Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti, Ondo State continues to have lesser allocation of power, with areas of Akure not having light for days, and when they do, for a paltry two or three hours only, yet Government remains unconcerned as it simply does not know what to do.
It might be news to them that Ekiti State enjoys more presence of electricity because its Government took on that Disco company vigorously, while ours merely carouse and dance to “Ma ba ja” chorus endlessly, thereby carelessly abandoning its basic responsibilities endlessly.
We make bold to say that the November 16th election will be a defining moment for this State. It will robustly establish that our people will discard the pettiness associated with the current administration and take a firm leap forward by voting for content and quality, voting PDP is the way to go.
Our desire to rectify these anomalies dictate that the PDP candidate, Agboola Ajayi who possess requisite experience and a vast understanding of political and administrative applications be elected as Governor.
Peoplesmind
