By Thisday
The presidential candidate of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Mr. Kola Abiola has taken a swipe at state governors in the country for continuing to resist the autonomy of local governments, assuring that if elected, his administration would ensure that the councils are free from the hold of the governors.
Abiola, the son of the late business mogul and presumed winner of the 1993 presidential election, gave the commitment at the weekend, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, during the presidential campaign rally of the party where the party’s flag was handed over to candidates in the six states of the South West
Among others, Abiola was accompanied by the National Chairman, Mallam Falalu Bello; National Secretary, Babatunde Alli and the National Legal Adviser, Mrs. Juliet Ogba.
While addressing a horde of supporters that welcomed him to the ancient city, Abiola bemoaned the deplorable situation the country has continued to be in the last 30 years when his father contested and won the presidential seat on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), but denied the victory.
bemoaned the deplorable situation the country has continued to be in the last 30 years when his father contested and won the presidential seat on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), but denied the victory.
He said many of the politicians going about promising restructuring, true federalism, local government autonomy and the rest were just making empty promises, stating that, “They will never do it.
It is only our party, PRP, that can do it and that is why it has always been in our manifesto 50 years on.”
He maintained that grassroots development “is very germane to a nation’s progress. Regarding the local government autonomy, what we have now is that when the money gets to the state level, from the Federation Account, the governors are too hard on the JAC account. They will never let the money get to the local government chairmen.
“Even the President signed the Executive Order on autonomy of local government, but you have your governors going to the Houses of Assembly to reject it. How many of them have complied?
“That is what is already in the constitution, yet they would not want it implemented. We are the party that will enforce it in our states. We will enforce it to the letter,” the president candidate said.
In his remark, Bello said the party, which was once a regional party in the Second Republic, “is now a national party, and ready to repeat the great height the likes of Balarabe Musa, the late governor of old Kaduna State and late Abubakar Rimi of old Kano State, took their states before the collapse of that republic.”
He accused the PDP and APC of ruining Nigeria instead of ruling it since 1999, describing the APC government as a monumental failure that should not be allowed another chance to rule the country.