Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, while addressing the press in the Governor’s Office said, “The Federal Government is not superior, constitutionally, to the state government.”
He stated further, “Yes, they have resources than the state but the jurisdiction is coordinate and we can do what is right in Oyo State and we have been doing what is right in Oyo State.”
These are parts of the few comments Makinde made regaring the Supreme Court judgement granting financial autonomy to the local government, the third tier of the government in Nigeria.
Makinde berated President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration for playing politics with the Supreme Court judgement.
He said, “I spoke to the commissioner for finance yesterday. He said to me that Federal Executive Council (FEC), is tomorrow. All of, please come. We will delay the pronouncement of the Supreme Court so that for the next 90 days, which is three months far from now, they will still pay the money into the JAC Account. Who is fooling who in this country? You make the law. You break it. So, the law is at your own whims and caprices. That is not how to run a country. If you make the law, let us all obey the law.”
“For us in Oyo State, we can solve our own problem. We can deal with our situation and we can prioritise our people. Our task now to discuss among ourselves and whatever we agree. We have the state house of assembly here, they have the oversight function to make laws for the good governance at the local government level. We have NULGE here. NLC is here. Nigerian Unior of Pensioners is here. NUT is here. Let us sit down, discuss and faction out our way out of this”, he explained.
