•Warns Attoney General Lateef Fagbemi

I have always been a public interest advocate; I am an advocate of good governance. When I talked about Abia State, people asked me what my interest was in Abia. When I talk about Lagos, they say it’s understandable, he lives in Lagos. When I talked about Kano, I was asked what my interest in Kano was. The same thing when I talked about Maiduguri. When it was Edo, they said okay he is from Edo. When I talked about Delta, they said oh okay, he grew up there. My interest is to see good governance in Nigeria and secondly, Osogbo is a place I visit often. I have cases in Osogbo. I have cases in Ibadan and also in Ekiti, but insecurity has now made Nigerians to be hiding in one place or the other. I have been an advocate of good local government administration because it is the government that is closest to the people. If local government administration is effective in Nigeria, we won’t even know if states are functioning. Growing up then in Bendel State, we had 19 local governments and all of the local governments were functional. We had pipe-borne water at the local government level. My uncle was a chief inspector of education at the local government level, he was higher than a commissioner at that time. The respect was visible. But if you see a commissioner for education now, it would be a person who cannot even string two sentences together. In those days when they tell you that inspector of education was coming to inspect schools, everybody will sit up. That was at the local government level. So, I have always been an advocate of effective and good local government administration in Nigeria.

The way we discussed Rivers State, what was our interest in Rivers? When the issues of Rivers was boiling, what was our interest? Our interest is Nigeria and an injury to one anywhere is an injury to all because all of us would feel it at the end of the day. PDP did the same thing we are talking about now, and it is very easy to say “Na them-them” and you allow it. When it festers and it affects you, every other person will look away too and say ‘na them-them’. When PDP did it to the opposition, we opposed it. Today, the government in power is doing it to PDP, we also will oppose it until the right thing is done, irrespective of political affiliation, age, sex or creed.

There is no crisis in the local government election conducted by the PDP in Osun. The perceived crisis in Osun is contrived by the APC using federal might. You will see that the issues are very clear, but like we say, ‘the law is what the court says it is.’ In the case of Rivers State, the Federal Government was very quick in implementing the decision of the Supreme Court saying that failure to comply with the provisions of the electoral act as regards the notice for the conduct of the local government election was fatal to the outcome of the election, and subsequently nullified that election in Rivers State.

Towards the twilight of the Oyetola administration, the state decided to conduct a local government election. Preemptively, the PDP rushed to court to say that the time was too short and that it would not be enough to give the required notice. The federal high court agreed with the PDP to the effect that the statutory notice in compliance with the Section 150 of the Electoral Act, having not been met, that the entire process was flawed and subsequently nullified that election. But the APC appealed that judgement on the ground that the action was preemptive, that as at the time they went to court notice for election had not been issued. The Court of Appeal agreed with the APC and allowed that appeal, dismissing the suit at the federal high court between the PDP and the APC.

There is another matter in the same vein around the same time. The APP also approached the federal high court in Osogbo, asking that the election that was conducted by Oyetola be nullified. The court agreed with APP and nullified that lection. The APC appealed these two judgements but only got judgement in the case of PDP and APC, and abandoned the one instituted by the APP. For two years the matter was abandoned and the Court of Appeal struck it out for lack of diligent prosecution. When the appeal was struck out for lack of diligent prosecution, the PDP government approached the court requesting for the conduct of election. Justice Aderibigbe granted an order earlier this year giving them a go-ahead to conduct the election. So, you now have three cases and five judgements. Remember that the case of the APP against the APC was upheld by the federal high court and was also used to sack the APC elected chairmen. That matter was appealed and the APC abandoned the appeal and their appeal was subsequently struck out for lack of diligent prosecution. So, what that means is that, that judgement sacking the APC elected officials is still subsisting. The judgment of the federal high court in the case between the APP and APC is still subsisting because the appeal of the APC had been struck out by the Court of Appeal. It is on that ground that Justice Aderibigbe now asked parties in the state to go ahead with the conduct of the local government election in the state, which they conducted in February this year.

The next question now would be: why would the Attorney-General of the Federation be citing only the Court of Appeal judgment in suit No. 94 which is PDP and APC without citing the Court of Appeal judgement in suit No. 103 between APP and APC? The judgement in suit 103 is still subsisting. So, when the Attorney-General was now writing a legal opinion and saying that since the Court of Appeal has dismissed the case in suit No. 93, what it means is that the APC council chairmen should be allowed to come back and take their seats without having recourse to the subsisting judgement in suit 103.

Subsequently, last year, the APC suddenly realised that they had an appeal that was abandoned. They brought an application to relist that appeal. The court not only dismissed the application to relist, the court also recognised the fact that election had been conducted to fill these vacant positions. Justice Obiora, in striking out the application to relist, held that: “If the third applicant – that is the APC and her members who were elected as chairmen and councillors and subsequently sacked by the lower court, knew that the term of office they were elected to serve was three years, then it is inconceivable that they will go to slumber for two years.” He also said in that judgement that “whatever made the APC and her sacked members to go to sleep for two years without worry, and suddenly woke up after two years, cannot be based on motives that are altruistic and in conformity with expeditious determination of an appeal, for every a right to fair hearing is expected to be exercised within a reasonable time as widely stated in Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Justice Omoyele, while agreeing with the main judgement read by his learned brother said: “Critically, this court has earlier delivered judgement on the 10th of February, 2025 in appeal number CA/AK/207/2002 involving basically the same parties and addressing substantially the same issue. The said appeal has been dismissed. What is more, a fresh local government election conducted on the 22nd of February, 2025, and the swearing-in of the new chairmen and councillors have overtaken the sub-stratum of the main issue. Relisting the appeal at this time will serve no practical purpose. That means it will become an academic exercise.” So, basically, what the judges are saying is that this office you are struggling to go back and occupy, there was an appeal that determined the matter. An election has been conducted into those offices. So, asking you to relist this matter so that we hear it and you go and occupy the office becomes an academic exercise. Which one is difficult to understand for an Attorney-General to now say that their tenure of office is still subsisting? Or the Minister of Finance now asking members of the APC to go and open accounts in their names at the CBN when duly these people had been sacked by a court of competent jurisdiction? That is why I sad that there is no controversy in the matter except the one created by the APC and their people.

Should they resort to self-help by fighting the federal government? They have gone to court, the court has made a pronouncement. They have written series of letters to the Attorney-General explaining their position. They have written series of letters to the Ministry of Finance explaining the position but the Attorney-General is still hell bent on listening to one side of the story and not listening to the other side.

People have argued why didn’t they obey the Court of Appeal judgement? That judgement became a mere pronouncement in the eye of the law considering the fact that there is another subsisting judgement that also sacked the same council officials. As a lawyer, you should make sure that both judgements are dismissed, you pursue both appeals simultaneously. But they abandoned one of the appeals forgetting that that judgment remains a court judgment that needs to be set aside. Two years later they now remembered that this appeal is still an inhibition, it is still serving as an encumbrance and they went back to court to say relist this appeal and the court said no, we can’t allow you to relist the appeal because you slept on your right for two years; are you sure you desire this office? Secondly, the office you are asking us to allow you to go and occupy by relisting this appeal, those offices have been validly occupied by other people by virtue of a valid election which had been conducted. You slept on your right, equity aids the vigilant and not the indolent. So, you cannot now wake up and be using the federal government power to say that Court of Appeal judgement does not matter. In one breadth the APC is saying the Court of Appeal judgement in Suit No. 94 is okay. The same Court of Appeal gave a judgement in Suit No. 203 and you say no. so, you are cherry-picking which one you will obey. Are they not both Court of Appeal?

Secondly, one court in two separate cases sacked somebody. The first one said you are sacked; the second one said you are sacked. The facts that led to these cases are different. The ground upon the Court of Appeal determined the first case was that it was preemptive because the ingredients for activating the decision of the court had not arisen. So, it was a question of jurisdiction, because the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter because the notice had not even been issued. In the second suit, notice had been issued. So, do you think that the court of appeal will determine both suits in the same way? In the second suit, the ingredient for activating the court had arisen. But instead of you to pursue that one, you abandoned it. You slept on your right and allowed the next man to conduct election and occupy the office. The court gave them go ahead to conduct the election and occupy the office. Even that order that gave them the go ahead to conduct election, you didn’t challenge it on appeal. You didn’t challenge it to say that the court ought not to have granted the order. If the Court of Appeal had vacated that order, that means that anything done subsequent to that order becomes a nullity. You didn’t do all of that and then you are using federal might to muzzle opposition. What can the opposition do? They don’t have police, they don’t have anything. If they resort to self-help, there would be chaos. They will give them the Rivers State treatment, declare a state of emergency in Osun. Meanwhile, in Benue people are killed; Plateau is boiling, and we have refused to declare state of emergency. Is this democracy?

Let’s start from who the letter was addressed to. If you are addressing a letter to the Local Government, do you address it to the address of APC secretariat in Osun? Check the address and check the address of the APC secretariat. So, what it means is that the federal government, from the conditional letter of the Attorney-General, is insisting that it is the APC members that remain chairmen, it is on the basis of that that the Accountant-General has now written a letter to the APC asking them to open an account.

The question to ask before we seek the validity of those names is: Who are the authentic chairmen? The authentic chairmen are the chairmen that won the election conducted by the PDP. If you are now asking the APC chairmen – and they did it intentionally, because they would put treasurer or some persons who are sympathetic to their cause. So, in that vein, it is not the Accountant-General that determines the signatories to the account of the local government. It is a statutory role. Any other person outside those that are stated to be signatories to the account in compliance with the provisions of the local government administration law, it becomes a nullity.

That is why I am saying that it is the federal government that is creating the chaos in Osun. That is why I said it was contrived by the APC in collaboration with the federal government. So, when you now do this, a man who is not a chairman will tell you that he has appointed directors or treasurer, because these positions are political positions. So, by implication, the federal government will be paying money into private accounts of individuals. How is the local government going to benefit from these funds? How will salaries be paid? That is why I say what the federal government is doing, what the Attorney-General is doing and what the Ministry of Finance is doing and the Accountant-General is creating chaos that might snowball into anarchy in that state if care is not taken.

Not at all, what they do is to sign memo and give directives. The statutory signatories are the civil servants of that local government. They usually take charge because they are the ones that will account for the funds. Remember when Fashola as governor of Lagos State said, “I do not sign cheques.” The head of local government administration, the director of finance and supplies, and the director of administration are the civil servants who are statutorily recognised to do such things. There are statutory provisions for operating the accounts of the local government. That is why the Supreme Court judgement they are now trying to enforce has stated succinctly that the funds should be sent directly.

All of these is happening because we operate a feeding bottle system of government. If there was proper administration of local government, I do not see where the federal and state governments dictate how local government should be operated. It is the constitution that clearly spells out local government but unfortunately, if you look at our constitution it is just silent. It just states that a democratically-elected local government is hereby guaranteed, the state now makes laws for them. So, ordinarily, if the local government runs the administration not waiting for feeding bottle from anybody upstairs, we would not be having any of these. But a situation where the federal government becomes an overlord who will dictate and determine how local government should be run, who becomes a chairman of a local government, it is like a man carrying an elephant and still digging for crickets.

The career civil servants at the local governments should do what is right because Bola Ahmed Tinubu is president today but a time will come when there will be a pharaoh that does not know Joseph. They would be the ones that would be used as scapegoats. They would be the ones that the EFCC will run after, because this federal government will not be there. Look at the financial impropriety committed under any administration, the presidents and the governors will go free, it is the commissioner for finance, the accountant and the rest that are usually put in the line of fire. Meanwhile, they were taking instructions from some persons. Under Goodluck Jonathan, some persons whose names were used to open accounts, who were not even in possession of the accounts’ ATM cards visited EFCC times without number for crimes they didn’t commit. It was just because their names were used.

So, in the same vein, a career civil servant should use their tongue to count their teeth. They should be very careful and do what is right and that which they can always defend. If there is no instruction from your supervisor and then instruction just comes from Abuja, the question is: As at the time this person sent you the instruction, was the person duly elected councillor or duly elected local government chairman? The answer is ‘no, but that there is a directive from Abuja’. Who are you answerable to? Is it statutory that you must listen to Abuja? So, do the right thing because at the end of the day it will be more honourable to be out of job than for you to lose your dignity. Even as a statutory officer, you know you cannot just be sacked just like that. In the worst case, you will be redeployed to another office but you will have your name, your integrity and your peace of mind intact. So, don’t sign an approval for which you will be looking for human right lawyers that would be defending you when the people that collected the money are long gone while you will be the one in custody.

No, I’m not satisfied at all. We are far from good governance. What we have is even worse at the state level, local government administration is non-existent in Nigeria. That is why we are doing all of these things. At the state level, the state house of assembly has become an appendage of the governor’s office now and has made a caricature of our own brand of democracy. So, it is laughable what we call local government administration in Nigeria. It is laughable what we call state assembly. Do you know that it is so bad that even commissioners are just appointed, and for them to do anything that borders on their ministry they will wait for the body language of their governor? They will have to wait for his approval. A governor once said he was going somewhere and the commissioners cannot sit in their office as if they were appointed to be escorting the governor everywhere. Is that governance?

Those days when you see a governor like Michael Ajasin, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Professor Ambrose Alli and others you will know that governance is a serious thing. But now we have so turned governance to a comic show. No, I am not satisfied with what I am seeing.

There is no confusion. If anything, the perceived confusion is starting from the Attorney-General’s refusal to recognise the court judgement and duly elected local government officials that have been recognised by the Court of Appeal. What we should be telling our government officials starting from the office of the Attorney-General is that inasmuch as you are the Minister of Justice, the chief legal adviser of the federal government, you are also an Attorney-General who is the Number one Law Officer and the Number One protector of the laws of the entire country. So he must realise that the office is transient. Others have left that office before now and they didn’t leave with a good name. This is because his name in that office does not inspire good memories. This Attorney-General should not allow people to remember him for what people should not be remembered for: As Attorney-General who did the bidding of government against the bidding of the law.

Secondly, when people are in government they suddenly forget the solution to Nigeria’s problems until they leave government. People should remember that it is how you lay your bed that you lie on it. If you are in an office today, irrespective of what you benefit, do the right thing. In local government administration, there is nothing government should do that they have not done, what we should be telling President Tinubu is that it shouldn’t be a do or die. At a time, Obasanjo tried to muzzle you, people stood solidly behind you, the law stood on your side. Today, don’t use the same tactics to try to muzzle opposition. Don’t do it because someday people would say when Tinubu was there what did he do differently. That is why the president should instruct his attorney-general to give recognition to those who deserve it. Then those PDP members should also, if given the recognition, remember that the law today is on their side and in future, they should also learn to uphold the laws of the land. The law is all I know and that is what I try to uphold. Anything outside of the rule of law would be anarchy and when that happens, nobody will be spared. When it happened in Liberia, even the chief judge was in refugee camp alongside every other person. That is why we have to ensure that we protect the law, protect our democracy so that we don’t degenerate to that level.

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