By METROWATCH Reporter
Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege has disclosed that the local government autonomy bills are the biggest challenge to the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution.
He stated this while speaking to State House Correspondents after a private visit with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja.
The Deputy president who dismissed criticisms about the constitutional review process being an exercise on futility says state Houses of Assembly have failed to vote on the amendment bills on local government autonomy passed and transmitted to them for concurrence.
He However says that despite the challenge of the Governors and their state houses of assembly holding back, the National Assembly is optimistic the bills will be passed.
“I can tell you that at the National Assembly, we have fulfilled our part of that bargain, what is now left is to get the concurrence of 24 Houses of Assemblies of the states. That is also a Section 9 obligation, but this time, imposed on the State Houses of Assembly.
“As we speak, my mistake, if I knew this question was going to come up, I probably would have spoken with the Clerk of my committee before walking in here, but I know that notwithstanding the brouhaha over this, the states have been meeting and they’ve been taking positions on most of these bills.
“I don’t know how many right now, but the bigger challenge we have, frankly, it’s not so much all of the bills, it’s the bill dealing with the local government autonomy, both financial and administration, those are the two critical issues.
“But there are other bills, most of them have passed, we’ve gotten more than the required number of Houses of Assembly for some of those bills, but what matters to us, which is the priority to us, which is a big priority of Mr. President, is this issue of the local government autonomy and that’s where we’re having challenges and that is because of the position of some of the governors, who believed that they should not be in support of this.
“But my personal view, not speaking for the National Assembly as a whole, my personal view, the obligation is actually imposed on the state Houses of Assembly and not on the governors and I would have expected that the state Houses will show some independence in making some of the decisions, but it does appear that… I can’t fault them for working with their state governors in taking these positions, but we believe that with time, we’ll be able to resolve this.
“The President of the Senate has reached out to some of the governors, most especially through my friend, the governor of Kaduna State, to reach out to his fellow governors. Kaduna for instance, has already voted. Kaduna has voted and has transmitted. Of course, we won one, we lost one”, he said.
The National Assembly on March 29, 2022, transmitted 44 Constitution alteration bills to the 36 state Houses of Assembly for concurrence.
Speaking on his chances at the polls considering Delta state is PDP, he said: “Thank you very much. That is a very serious misconception to tag Delta State, a PDP state, not by any means. Okowa is very ripe for the taking. Delta is very ripe for the taking. We determined to achieve this, we’ve been going round each local governments, ward by ward, making the case drawing the attention of the people of the state to the misgovernance and lack of performance on the part of not just Okowa but the PDP led a administration in the past 14 years, but most especially in the last seven and a half years; and the message we’re saying to people is resonating.
“We’ve been able to make the case to them, that Delta State is supposedly a very, very rich state and indeed a very rich state given the contributions that we’ve made, not only to the economy of this country, but also to the economy of the state, because of the receipts we have gotten from federal allocation, inclusive of a 13% derivation and other resources that come to the state by way of IGR.
“By our own reckoning, since the Okowa administration came into being Delta State has received close to about N4.2 trillion naira. And this came like I said, by way of federal allocation, it came by way of 13% derivation, and also about N400 billion that the state has borrowed. Only recently, thanks to my brother, the governor of Rivers state, who also made us to understand that another N260 billion was given to our state (on account of shortfall payment). So if you look at that, that will be a total of N4.2 trillion that has come to the state. There’s nothing on ground by way of infrastructural development that is commensurate with all of these receipts that come to the state.
“The people are in despair. We have civil servants who gave the best part of their years in the service of the state and upon retirement, are still being owed gratuities, for the most part pensions. Some owed 6, 7, 8 and 9 years and they have not been paid, for a state that is that rich?
“We have as you all know, the minimum wage which has been approved for the entire country. In Delta State not withstanding our receipts Delta is one of the very few states that is not paying minimum wage, when you have states even up North that receive close to about a quarter, in most cases even less of the allocations coming to Delta State paying minimum wage.
“The health sector is in a state of decay, same to the educational sector. Before Okowa became governor we had tuition and other fees in Delta State tertiary institutions going for about N17,000 per year, but today, right now is close about N470,000 per student. Now, these are children of Deltans, who have not been paid the minimum wage.
“So the state is in serious despair. People are very very angry and they are in a hurry to kick out this government. And on top of that, there’s also this issue of equity. People are very, are very gentle. We are we are very gentle people, our word is our bond in Delta State. We are equitable, we fight for equity for all.
“It is the position of Deltans and most especially, indeed or the entire southern Nigeria, that given the fact that we have supported President Muhammadu Buhari, for the past eight years, it’s only fair, just and equitable that the next President should come from southern Nigeria. And it may also interest you that Okowa as the chairman of the governors forum in South South was one of those who led this charge, and met in Asaba, where the case was made, and the position was taken, and a communique was signed to the effect that at the expiration of the tenure of Mr. President from northern Nigeria, the next president must come from the south.
That position of the governors was equally supported by Mr. President himself, Muhammadu Buhari. And then we’re also lucky to have had the support of the governors of northern Nigeria most especially of the APC’s extraction, I believe about 16 or 17 of them all came together and approved the same position taken by the governors of southern Nigeria.
“So to the chagrin and disappoinment of many at home, Okowa has betrayed that course by selling away our right to the presidency, and instead going for a meager office of a Vice President at a time when the entire country is offering us the presidency. So our people are not taking this treachery kindly and determined that they will punish Okowa.
“So our prospects have been very bright in addition to what we offer, we want to change the narrative in the state. We have our own agenda, a planning manifesto we Christianed the agenda. In the agenda we’re taking a look at the challenges facing the state. Most importantly, the issue of unemployment. We had children that have graduated from school, some 6, 7, 8, 9 years without employment opportunities, despite the money that come to the state. So we’ve decided to focus on job creation for our people inclusive of empowerment of people by way of employment, and then also trying to create opportunities for our women and children by empowering them to set up their own businesses to keep their families together.
“Like I said, the same manifesto also addresses the issue of infrastructural decay. If you go to Delta State today, there is no road, no single road that is a new road that was constructed by Okowa as a governor. The last set of roads that we have in Delta State were constructed by a Governor Ibori. Since that time not a single new road, either by Governor Uduaghan or by Governor Okowa. All he’s been doing is doing patches using mushroom companies to do patches, or remedial work on some of these roads which after three, four months, they get washed away by by the rains.
“So, we were determined to arrest this infrastructural decay by making this a priority in the next government, which were provided for in our manifesto. But most importantly, the issue of enduring peace and security which is another plan and the manifesto is what we intend to focus on. Because at the end of the day for us to be able to have all of the jobs created to have companies that have left the state, come back to the state to set up and help create employment opportunities for our people, we need to create an enduring peaceful environment for them.
“We have states that invested so much in security, I don’t want to mention names, you know, there were some states that have taken security as a priority, did the requisite investments and those efforts are yielding results.
“So we intend to do the same putting the requisite investments so that those companies that have left can come back and help us to create employment.”
