By Tony Adibe
A foundation member of the All Progressive Congress (APC), and former Director General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu has advised President Bola Tinubu to beware of the Governors and “special interests” before they kill his two progressives milestones.
Okechukwu explained that the two outstanding progressive milestones of Mr President, are local government councils financial autonomy, achieved via landmark judgment of the Supreme Court, and allocation of 450,000bpd crude oil to local refineries, and should not be scuttled.
The former Director General VON gave the advice in Abuja while speaking with journalists on the state of the nation. He objected outright to a purported three months extension of the enforcement of the Supreme Court judgment, saying the apex court did not grant such a bazaar to the governors.
He further argued that President Tinubu could risk contempt of court, if he allowed the “governors to goad him into putting the judgment on hold, even for a day.”
Okechukwu said: “To me the two most outstanding progressives records of President Tinubu are the Supreme Court landmark judgment which conferred financial autonomy to local government councils and his allocation of 450,000 barrels per day of crude oil to local refineries. They should not be scuttled.”
He bemoaned that from the look of things the governors had goaded Mr President to not only dampen the power of the citizenry over local government council administration, but also to risk contempt of the Supreme Court landmark judgment.
He also advised the group he euphemistically dubbed “Special Interest” for denying the citizenry the opportunity of availability and reduction of fuel pump price, debt burden and envisaged employment and stabilisation of the Naira, among other anticipated progressive gains from crude oil allocation to local refineries.
Reminded that he should not worry because the local government councils financial autonomy is on hold for only three months, Okechukwu disagreed vehemently, pointing out that the Supreme Court judgment did not award such bazaar to governors, just as he expressed fears about the extension of this illegality.
Prodded further Okechukwu retorted:
“One just have to appeal to Mr President to beware of governors and special interest. My brethren you may not gauge how low APC’s approval rating is, which made us members to jubilate that our approval rating will rise again with the financial autonomy to local government councils and allocation of crude oil to local refineries, only for the celebration to be cut short.”
