…Says Tinubu Not Unfair To Northerners
A spokesman for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has called for some electoral reforms to make the recent financial autonomy granted to local governments (LGs) by the Supreme Court effective.
Felix Morka said though financial autonomy has been granted to the third tier of government, Nigeria cannot be said to have formidable LG administrations when governors still “handpick” chairmen for local governments in their states.
“In my understanding, the Supreme Court was right on the mark to give local governments access to funds meant for them. I don’t think this matter should engage the kind of controversy that I am seeing,” he said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.
“I agree that the entire system for regulating how elections are conducted in the local governments has to be properly revisited by the state governors and federal authorities.
“They need to come together and figure out a way to create a system and to regulate the conduct of elections that blends itself to some level of scrutiny, objectivity and independence as well because giving financial autonomy is one thing but if those who serve are handpicked by the same governors, then we are not yet there. We need to make some reforms to that electoral process,” Morka noted.
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court granted financial autonomy to the third tier of government, ordering the Federal Government to pay the 20.60% monthly allocation of the 774 LGs in the country directly to their exclusive accounts and not to accounts controlled by governors.
The apex court in the landmark judgement also barred power-drunk governors from dissolving democratically elected local government councils.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu has been fair to all sections of the country regarding appointments into key offices, a spokesman for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) said on Tuesday.
“President Tinubu is trying to be fair… We have some fairness in the key offices,” Felix Morka said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme, dousing a growing fireball of nepotistic claims shot-putted at the former Lagos governor by some northern heavyweights.
The APC spokesman said it was too early for the detractors of the ruling party to raise disapproving eyebrows against the President’s appointments.
“And this is a government that has just done one year in office, that has yet to even exhaust all of the opportunities for people to be invited to serve in this government. There are so many offices that are yet to be filled. There is more to come,” he said.
“We have the President, we have the Vice President. We have the defence, we have the finance. The defence is mostly staffed by people from the northern side while the minister of finance and the CBN governor are from the southern side.
“It’s always premature to make that assessment. Hold your breath till a lot of the key positions are filled.
“For those who want to make an issue of ethnicity, the President has the country as his constituency. The President is not the President of the South-West, or the North or the South; he is the President of Nigeria and every part of this country deserves to be effectively represented, consistent with the Federal Character flavour of our constitution.”
On allegations by Senator Ali Ndume from Borno South that Tinubu has been shielded from party members, Morka said APC internal mechanisms should be explored to deal with matters.
Some appointments of Tinubu, ex-Lagos governor, have been criticised as lopsided in the last couple of months. Tinubu, who took over from Muhammadu Buhari, a prominent northern figure and former military head of state, on May 29, 2023, appointed 48 ministers last August. One of the ministers resigned and joined the Senate last December while another was suspended in January.
A federal lawmaker, who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the Eighth National Assembly, Shehu Sani, had penultimate week urged Tinubu to prioritise competence in his appointments.
Sani had cautioned the President not to repeat the mistake of “nepotism” made by his immediate predecessor, Buhari.
The former lawmaker said during Buhari’s eight-year administration between May 2015 and May 2023, nepotism was at its peak yet results were not produced in all areas of governance, majorly security, economy, education and healthcare.
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