Immediate past Director General of the Voice of Nigeria, VON, Osita Okechukwu has warned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu against allowing the excesses of some governors and special interests mar his policy directions and achievements.
Okechukwu, a founding member of the All Progressive Congress, APC, said Tinubu should focus on the demands of his office, do away with unnecessary special interests and jealously guard his two main achievements.
According to Okechukwu, the two outstanding achievements of the President are the local government council’s financial autonomy, achieved via a landmark judgment of the Supreme Court and the allocation of 450,000bpd crude oil to local refineries, warning it should not be scuttled.
The former VON DG, offered the advice on Sunday in Abuja while speaking with journalists on the state of the nation.
He objected to a purported three-month extension of the enforcement of the Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy because the apex court did not grant such a bazaar to the governors.
Moreover, he argued that the President could risk contempt of the Supreme Court, if he allowed the governors to goad him into putting the judgment on hold, even for a day.
Okechukwu said, “To me, the two most outstanding progressive records of President Tinubu are the Supreme Court landmark judgment which conferred financial autonomy to local government councils and his allocation of 450,000 barrels per day of crude oil to local refineries. They should not be allowed to be scuttled.”
He lamented that from the look of things the governors had goaded Mr President to not only dampen the power of the citizenry over local government council administration but also to risk contempt of the Supreme Court landmark judgment.
He also admonished the group he euphemistically dubbed Special Interest for denying the citizenry the opportunity of availability and reduction of fuel pump price, and debt burden and envisaged employment and stabilisation of the Naira, among other anticipated progressive gains from crude oil allocation to local refineries.
When reminded that the local government councils financial autonomy may be on hold for only three months, Okechukwu disagreed vehemently, pointing out that the Supreme Court judgment did not award such bazaar to governors, just as he expressed fears about the extension of this illegality.
Prodded further Okechukwu quipped, “One just has to appeal to Mr President to beware of some governors and special interests. My brethren you may not gauge how low APC’s performance rating is, which made us members jubilate that our approval rating will rise again with the financial autonomy to local government councils and allocation of crude oil to local refineries, the celebration should not be allowed to be cut short.”