Can Any Modicum Of Conscience Be Traced To The Speaker Of Abia State House Of Assembly?
According to Sheikh Uthman Dan Fodio, in 1804, Conscience is an open wound, only truth can heal it. To buttress his point, the Sheikh added that Conscience is like a malignant cancer that kills, except it is treated.
In Biology, both Man and Animals belong to the same class, Mammalia of Animal Kingdom. The most distinctive difference between Man and Animal is Conscience.
In any human society where there is noticeable absence of Conscience, such a society ceases to be human and becomes better qualified as a Jungle. The safety, development and progress of any human society is propelled by Conscience.
Any Government headed by a man that is depraved, that is to say, that lacks Conscience, is bound to be anti-democratic. Conscience means a lot!
The Bill presented to Abia State House of Assembly by Governor Alexander Otti, with the aim of creating a Central Financial Management Agency, CFMA, that will control financial resources and determine Infrastructural projects of the Seventeen Local Government Councils in the State, is a clear expression of Man’s Inhumanity To His Fellow Man. This Bill manifests wickedness, greed, autocracy and is, to all intents and purposes, devilish.
It is a sad and painful irony that Governor Alexander Otti has vowed to fight President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s well intended efforts to restore autonomy to Local Government Councils in Nigeria by presenting a bill which, if passed by the State House of Assembly, would make a complete nonsense of the Fiscal Autonomy granted to Local Government Councils in Nigeria via a landmark Judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on Thursday (Afor) July 11, 2024.
There has been a dearth of development in the grassroots of Nigeria for many years because of choking effect of diversion and outright embezzlement of Local Government allocations by State Governors. In his wisdom, determination and courage to bring development to the grassroots, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approached the Supreme Court of Nigeria, and successfully obtained a Judgment that Local Government Councils be granted Financial Autonomy.
Equityreporters.net calls on the Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Mr Emmanuel Emeruwa, and the other twenty-three Members of the House to stand boldly on their feet and save the present generation of Abia State, and generations that will come later, by saying a Capital NO to this obnoxious Bill.
This Bill, if passed into Law, would decapitate the Local Government Councils in Abia State, as every money that accrues to the Councils would be diverted to Governor Otti’s unwarrantedly created Central Financial Management Agency, which would then purportedly assert authority on how Local Government Funds would be used, strictly on the directive and approval of the Governor.
This desire by Governor Alexander Otti, apart from being a manifestation of wickedness and greed, constitutes a deliberate but undesirable bold attempt to call the bluff of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Leadership of the 10th National Assembly on Local Government Autonomy.
Except the Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly who is already believed to be a mere rubber stamp in the manipulative hand of Governor Alexander Otti can decide to develop some modicum of conscience in himself, Abia State would only exist as a mere shadow of itself in the next few months. The greed of an individual should not be allowed to constitute the albatross of Abia State.
Therefore, Speaker, Abia State House of Assembly, Mr Emmanuel Emeruwa, even though you exhibited some level of parochialism by refusing to allow your colleagues have a look at this destructive Bill at your Executive session but only introduced it at the Plenary, you could still have a change of mind. Even if the Governor promises to give each Member of the State House of Assembly the sum of ONE HUNDRED MILLION NAIRA, making a total of only TWO BILLION AND FOUR HUNDRED MILLION NAIRA, the collosal effect of that Bill would still make a nonsense of such unholy financial inducement.
Above all, this Bill, if passed by Members of the Abia State House of Assembly because of avarice and gluttony, shall not stand because it will be rigourously challenged in Courts, and the outcome would be a shame to those driven by sheer greed and dictatorship.
Sir Don Ubani; KSC, JP
Publisher, equityreporters.net.
Tuesday (Orie)22-10-2024.
