Beyond Restructuring, Implement 4th, 5th Constitution Amendments, Ex-VON DG Tells Govs

The former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu has called out the state governors following their refusal to implement the 4th and 5th amendments of the 1999 constitution.

Okechukwu made the call out in a statement he issued in Abuja on Sunday.

The 4th and 5th amendments of the 1999 constitution talk about the financial autonomy of the state Houses of Assembly and the Judiciary.

READ ALSO:: Do Not Offer Bribe To Any Of Our People, Tinubu Tells Qatari Investors

Okechukwu, a founding member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) spoke on Sunday amid the renewed calls for restructuring.

Recently, the Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka put restructuring on the front burner while delivering a lecture at an event organised by the Punch Newspaper.

Soyinka at the Punch’s 50th Anniversary, said, “When the word restructuring is booted around, we often have the challenge, what do you mean by restructuring?

“Well, I don’t even like the word restructuring, I prefer expressions like reconfiguration and decentralisation. And those who lead us, they recognise the necessity of it, they recognise the importance and almost the inevitability of decentralisation until they get in power.”

Also, the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku added his noble voice. “I am on record for saying that these challenges cannot be effectively addressed under the constitution and governance system we have at the moment.

“We cannot effectively address these challenges that have assumed a nationwide dimension, especially insecurity which has pervaded the Northern part of the country and other communities,” he said.

However, Okechukwu in reaction to this said though he was not against restructuring, if restructuring is a patriotic search for a prosperous society and the good of the greatest number of Nigerians.

“If restructuring is for a prosperous society and the good of the greatest number of Nigerians; do the governors need restructuring before implementing the 4th and 5th amendments of the country’s constitution?” Okechukwu retorted.

Expressing his views on the renewed restructuring calls, Okechukwu cautioned that “the lukewarm attitude of the majority of the governors to adherence to the rule of law, welfare and security of our citizenry; dampens our zeal to advocate for the concession of more powers to Governors cum Emperors.”

He stressed that, “Whereas one is not against restructuring or reconfiguration, especially the imperative of devolution of powers to the sub-national units, once more do our dear governors need restructuring before they implement the 4th and 5th amendments of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?”

“Simply put, is financial independence of the State Judiciary and the State Legislatures, not deepening of our democracy and fundamental restructuring?” Okechukwu asked.

He said for example the governors had in a bi-partisan unholy alliance serially voted against first-line charge of funding to local councils, made a mess of State Independent Electoral Commissions and blatantly refused to implement the first-line charge funding of state judiciary and state legislatures which is the 4th amendment.

“And since the 5th Amendment we are yet to see visible cooperation of state governments from any of the would be regional bloc or geopolitical zone embarking on regional electricity chain or railways project?”

“May the question be asked- did we forget why issues like region failed in all the constitutional conferences – 1978/9, 1988/9, 1995/6, 2005 and 2014? Reason in a nutshell – phobia of local hegemony.

“And where were the guardrails, guardians or muscle men who would flush out governors cum emperors when they were trampling on our civil liberties, squandering our commonwealth and violently breaching all the extant provisions of the constitution highlighted above.

“Or are we going to go to heaven after restructuring to plead fervently with Almighty God for secondment of our holy ones from heaven?” Okechukwu quipped.