Fashola Advocates Shedding Of Unitary Powers By The Centre For Nation’s Progress.

Lagos State Governor on Monday called for a relinquishment of all powers appropriated by the central government through decrees in the unitary era of the country, stating that such powers inhibit progress and prosperity. Governor Fashola who spoke at the Event Centre, Central Business District, Alausa, Ikeja during the Seventh Assembly’s First Consultative Roundtable and Policy Retreat for Local Government Officials with the theme: “Setting Agenda for Local Government Reforms in Lagos State: Improving Governance and Integrated Development”, said power must be decentralized to release Nigeria from bondage. He said it is ironic that States have State Houses of Assembly which make laws and State High Courts but cannot enforce such laws, adding that now is the time to say no to the present overbearing federal arrangement.

“Although, I have only been to some countries but I wonder how many nations still print their drivers license centrally and still issues Certificate of Occupancy. Does the Federal Government has any land that it issues C of Os on?”. Governor Fashola said even now, the Federal Government is purporting to register all operators of hospitality businesses in Nigeria in what is not in its purview under the subterfuge of security challenge which the nation is currently undergoing. He stressed that the immigration points are the best points to determine the number and people who enter the nation just as it is done in other destinations, adding that the Federal Government is only trying to get through the back door what it could not get lawfully. The Governor who also supported the call for a new revenue formular said the present arrangement where the Federal Government takes away about 52 percent is not acceptable.

He said the various public corporations like Nigeria Airways, Nigeria National Shipping Line, National Electric Power Authority and many others which formed part of the basis for the 52 percent share have all been privatized yet the central government still keeps the major share of the nation’s revenue. He reminded the people that with the Federal Government keeping 52 percent of the funds, the issue is that anytime the federal budget fails, it means the nation records a failure of 52percent. He said even if all the 36 states succeed in their budget, they would have only succeeded in making an input of 26 percent in to the total output of the nation, adding that the same applies for the Local Governments which currently stands at 774 and with a total percentage allowance of 20percent of the revenue allocation. The Governor who also spoke on the additional 37 Local Council Development Areas in Lagos said the creation is an idea whose time is already preeminent as the state has already done what the constitution expects of it in terms of creating new Local Governments. Governor Fashola said the creation of the new Local Council Development Authorities also comes with the democratization of opportunities for many of those who serve at the third tier and charged them to democratize opportunities and good governance at that level.

“We have Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to thank for the foresight of a referendum in creating those Local additional Local Governments just as we also thank the State House of Assembly for enacting the law, the team of lawyers and the Supreme Court for its landmark judgment on the case of the financial strangulation of the Local Governments”, he stated. “Have we reciprocated this with diligent, selfless and good service to the people?. Have we earned the trust of the people who voted for us at the referendum on the creation of those Local Governments”. The Governor charged the administrators at the Local Government level to consider the eight Millennium Development Goals as the minimum which any serious minded government must be committed to, adding that it should not be tied to any Millennium or any age. He said the reduction of maternal and infant mortality rate, sustainable environmental policy, Universal Basic Education and eradication of poverty are four of the goals which have been subsumed into the eight that should constitute the roadmap for all Local Governments.

[b]Governor Fashola stated that by focusing on the issue of primary education, healthcare and environmental cleanliness and tackling them, the Local Governments would be a model for the South West, the nation and the Continent as well. The Governor said Lagos State is working rapidly to implement a robust plan which is to ensure that at least one Primary Health Centre is provided in each of the 57 Councils that will work on a 24 -hour basis. He explained that the Government is reworking and retooling the organization, recruitment and retraining of teachers and personnel at the primary school level to ensure that they are empowered with skills with which to fight poverty. He emphasized that poverty cannot be eradicated with giving of loans and aids, adding that all countries that usually give aids are now having a rethink because it is making people unproductive. The Governor said it is not enough to build schools, Primary Health Care Centres, Hospitals and classrooms because the schools on its own cannot teach just as the PHC cannot on its own dispense medical care, stressing that the Local Government administrators must always endeavour to find out under what conditions the facilities are operating and faring.
[/b]
He said the present situation where doctors in state hospitals are taking charge of treatments like malaria, typhoid and cholera should not arise because those types of ailments should be taken care of by Primary Health Care Centres. He also advocated the going back to the manual of Primary Health Care prepared by late Minister of Health, Professor Olikoye Ransome- Kuti as a starting point, adding that the manual taught people about the basic things to do in terms of medical care during little emergencies. Also speaking, the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said the new Local Governments in Lagos are babies that are alive and kicking and which can never be aborted anymore. He also reiterated his call for a new revenue allocation formular for the country because the present one that gives 52percent to the government at the centre has given undue advantage to that level of government. Asiwaju Tinubu said the Federal Government has been largely responsible for the insinuations that Local Governments are not performing because the government at the third tier has to deal with many unfunded mandates due to its lean resources while the government at the centre continues to get more.

He said the Nigerian Constitution is very clear on whom it gave the powers to create additional Local Governments to in terms of tenure and schedule of responsibilities which is statutorily the function of the State Houses of Assembly. He said the Federal Government constitutes the main problems facing the administration of Local Governments in the State because of its consistent interference. He said the listing of 774 Local Governments in the Nigerian Constitution could be likened to a listing in a directory and should not be seen as an end in itself but a list which has been provided so that additional ones could be included when they fulfil the constitutional requirements. Prominent among those who attended the event were the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Adeyemi Ikuforiji, the Deputy, Hon Kolawole Taiwo, other members of the State House of Assembly, elected Local Government and Local Council Development Authorities Chairmen, the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Aremu Akiolu I and top officials of the Local Government system.

Arosa:

I haven't read the whole Quote but I know Fashola is right. I will read it later. 

Odu-toda-iwa:

It is only a fool that will think that Lagos state depends on handout from the FG. As a matter of fact, Lagos gets less that one tenth of it's contribution to the national purse. Import duties from Lagos ports for a quarter is more than allocations from FG for a year. If not for share hatred and gross stupidity nobody should make such comments.

For those "soon to become self liabilities" who fail to do what is necessary NOW! rather keep on harping about "absolute resource control". Remember when those you love to hate become the custodian of 58% of the National treasury you won't have the moral right to ask for power devolution then.

Odu-toda-iwa:

It is only a fool that will think that [b]Lagos state depends on handout from the FG. As a matter of fact, Lagos gets less that one tenth of it's contribution to the national purse. [/b]Import duties from Lagos ports for a quarter is more than allocations from FG for a year. If not for share hatred and gross stupidity nobody should make such comments.

For those "soon to become self liabilities" who fail to do what is necessary NOW! rather keep on harping about "absolute resource control". Remember when those you love to hate become the custodian of 58% of the National treasury you won't have the moral right to ask for power devolution then.

0lumide:

I hope I don't get to cry for Niger Delta in 2016, Naive fuks,

Obasanjo weakened the Northern elites by far when he was there, You Niger Deltans are playing into the hands of the Northern Elites,

I hope y'all know something called ally building, SE is not a good political for anyone. The SE elites are buffoons and political sluuts, "SS" have the chance to get resource control now than ever, Instead of fighting to have a system that allows regions to control their resources in place, they are crying jonathan our man, Resource control isn't possible unless the system that allows it is put in place,

htajz:

thank you for the advice but we know who our enemies are, the same south east backed us to get 13 percent derivation while you yorubas where trying to sabotage it and they will back to get back every other remaining thing , they backed us to get presidency while you yorubas where begging your hausa fulani masters for alliance and we saw how it turned out for you epic failure,what have your yoruba leaders done for us if not hatred, cheating, lies and back stabbing, bunch of cowards, you have started you evil game again but it wont work . go and preach to your hausa fulani masters for political alliance, as you can see all the south southerners hate you with deep passion cus only lies and evil come out of your rotten mouths. obasanjo weakened my Bottom.

htajz:

thank you for the advice but we know who our enemies are, the same south east  backed us to get 13 percent derivation while you yorubas where trying to sabotage it and they will back to get back every other  remaining thing , they backed us to get presidency while you yorubas where begging your hausa fulani masters for alliance and we saw how it turned out for you epic failure,what have your yoruba leaders done for us if not hatred, cheating, lies and back stabbing, bunch of cowards, you have started you evil game again but it wont work . go and preach to your hausa fulani masters for political alliance, as you can see all the south southerners hate you with deep passion cus only lies and evil come out of your rotten mouths. obasanjo weakened my Bottom.

YES! WITHOUT OBASANJO, AN IJAW MAN WON'T BE PRESIDENT TODAY

Tinubu mustered the temerity to call the President of Nigeria a drunkard, a sinking fisherman. This was how Tinubu put it: “I think the President is wrong because that is an insult to our parents. It is a speech from a drunk sailor fisherman whose boat is about to capsize. That is an insult to our parents; you don’t come to this land, seek our votes and then insult our parents that they raised rascals”.


What, you may wonder, did the Nigerian President say to merit the verbal diarrhea? [b]This was what the President said at a campaign rally in Ibadan:  “In 2007, I came here with former President Yar’Adua to beg for your votes and you gave us your support. We owe you for that. In December 2010, I returned to beg for your delegates’ votes at the congress and you voted for me massively. We are here again to solicit for the support of the entire people of the state.

I must tell you that the South-West is a very important zone in the country. It is becoming the most cosmopolitan zone in the country. About 50 per cent of the people in Lagos alone are not from the South-West. In Ogun State, about 25 per cent of the citizens are not from the South-West. This is not to talk about Oyo and other states. Anything that happens here affects the entire nation and so, the region must be taken seriously. I can assure you that we will take back Lagos, Ekiti and Osun; we will control the entire South-West. Lagos is important to us and I am happy that we have presented our flag to a capable candidate, [Dr Ade] Dosunmu. The entire South-West is too important, too sophisticated and too educated to be in the hands of rascals”[/b].

Beaf:

Some people think they will call, "fisherman!" and we will answer, "yes sir!"
Phuck you and whatever alms begging skills you bring to the table.

Beaf:

Phuck you ACN bastards and whatever Obj did.[size=14pt] Afterall, Obj is a PDP man.[/size]
Do you remember the quote below? it is causing you big problems now. Again phuck you:

[size=14pt]Tinubu not smiling[/size]


[size=14pt]Tinubu smiling[/size]


www.nairaland.com/attachments/180447_ROTFLMAO_gif3d0c775232c7f27cf80592785b9635b6

0lumide:

TINUBU DON FINISH!!

HE IS STRONGER THAN YOUR FISHERMAN IN ASO ROCK SHA, HAHAHAHHA

0lumide:

TINUBU DON FINISH!!

HE IS STRONGER THAN YOUR FISHERMAN IN ASO ROCK SHA, HAHAHAHHA

htajz:

f, uck you , f, uck ACN and f, uck the south west , bunch of as.ss lickers, what happened to your alliance with the north? dumbwitts. now run away your hausa fulani masters need you.

Odu-toda-iwa:

@ Beaf. Do you have any stuff with a resemblance of the brain matter in that your thick skull at all?. I tire for you ooo. But after oga Jona presidency. What would you say is the institutional reform in the polity he had done towards ensuring "the parasitic  S'Westerners  and Northerners" footing our bills.

You know what?. After 2015, when another Mr centralist gets there, you people should go back to the creeks and start blowing up installations. As much as I do not like resorting to sentiments based on tribalism when discussing Nigeria. [b]I urge people from the SS to raise their men (if they still have any) to draw Jonas ears to effect the changes that will take this country towards true federalism Now. It is better to unsettle this pseudo stability so that we may find a more enduring balance as a nation. [/b]My impression about Jonathan is that he does not really care what becomes of either Nigeria as a whole or even the SS as long as he remains president.

With all these your rantings. I can only tell you that time will tell.

Gbawe:

Loaded talk. Not hard to work out what some losers are trying to do on Nairaland. They have long cursed the North and the SW as the 'devils' who ruined Nigeria. They simplistically held that all it would take for Nigeria to become Dubai is for one of their own, who understands "marginalisation", to take charge. This is why they feverishly and passionately backed GEJ. Some of us told them that it is not about ethnicity. Rather, we must seek out the best leaders wherever they are from and similarly reject mediocrities wherever they are from.

Now that GEJ is leading terribly and doing things exactly opposite to what his bigoted fans predicted, the next approach is for them to start hurling frustrated abuse at imaginary enemies (ACN, CPC, North, SW, Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani etc) instead of admitting, like people of honour, that they gullibly backed another 'Voltron' of the elitist and damaging central control of Nigeria's wealth by a few.

Rather than advise GEJ , the most powerful man in Nigeria, to play his part in the badly needed devolution of power that will develop Nigeria beyond 2015 when anything may happen, the new tactics is to defend GEJ blindly and pretend as if the "evil" SW and North wish to bring him down. Admitting GEJ is "more of the same" and a willing defender of the system, practices and hegemony that has kept Nigeria down is simply too much for some since they swore, non-stop, that the "messiah" is here . This is why Asari-Dokubo would rather say , ridiculously, the death sentence for AL Mustafa is a Yoruba plot to ridicule GEJ !!!!!! Are these people at all aware that 4 years (virtually only 3 now) will fly by quickly ?

Pathetic how some naive losers and feudalists are being fooled by the Asari-Dokubo and Briggs of the world to the extent they come here shouting "alliance" and making empty feudal noise while failing to acknowledge that what we actually need and should all be demanding is the devolution of power that will make it easy for States and regions to essentially operate as their own Country unimpeded !!!!!

Let me ask Nairalanders this.

What happens if absolutely nothing changes under GEJ and we then gain a devotee of elitist central control in 2015 like Atiku, Sambo, Gusau et al ? What would all the noise and hate against the North have amounted to? Hate that only made some embrace noise-making while they ignored calling out GEJ to subtly put measures in place that will mean , whatever happens in 2015, we are all somewhat closer to true federalism and the concept of developing at our own pace without an indolent centre holding the entire nation down !!

Nairalanders should open their eyes to the crass deception of those wishing to distract from GEJ's abysmal failings and penchant for the sort of inefficient model of Governance that has gotten us where we are today .

htajz:


nothing will change after GEJ, nothing will change if we have an igbo president and nothing will change if we have another yoruba either, the whole system should be scraped with division on the table. we can keep postponing dooms day but it will come again. thank to nairaland seun is playing the role of inciting deep ethnic hatred.

alj harem:


Igbo man you still dey here

wetin happen

htajz:


nothing will change after GEJ, nothing will change if we have an igbo president and nothing will change if we have another yoruba either, the whole system should be scraped with division on the table. we can keep postponing dooms day but it will come again. thank to nairaland seun is playing the role of inciting deep ethnic hatred.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (pronounced [musˈtäfä ceˈmäl ätäˈtyɾc], 19 May 1881 by a posteriori –10 November 1938) was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

Atatürk was a military officer during World War I. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, he led the Turkish national movement in the Turkish War of Independence. Having established a provisional government in Ankara, he defeated the forces sent by the Allies. His military campaigns gained Turkey independence. Atatürk then embarked upon a program of political, economic, and cultural reforms, seeking to transform the former Ottoman Empire into a modern, westernized and secular nation-state. The principles of Atatürk's reforms, upon which modern Turkey was established, are referred to as Kemalism.

Gbawe:

keep watching buddy. We will see who has overestimated their touted strenght within a Nigeria where the stomach, and not enduring principles, is king[b] today[/b]. [size=14pt]Boko Haram has been butchering Nigerians from all walks of life so far. What has been the reaction of those who vacuously make noise about their 'powermen' strenght on the net?[/size] Where was the immediate burning of Mosques after the Christmas attack to indicate a readiness for t.i.t-for-tat and we-wont-take-it-lying-down people like you tout?

[size=14pt]Right now, the "owners of Nigeria" will do and undo , plus give the lead, while all Nigeria will follow as is the case so far !!! Many of you don't seem to understand that events on the ground has overtaken the history you so much hold on to and assume other share feverishly , as dogmatic mantra, with you.[/size]

Beaf:

I de laff ooo!

See the hypocrite called Gbawe that just some weeks ago was hailing boko harams "stomach" has now turned his faecal politics toward playing the victim. Just a few weeks ago, he was regailing us with how Jonathan would be overthrown or even killed by the "owners of Nigeria" of which he claimed to be one).
Just a few weeks ago, the fool was in the habit of starting threads to gloat over each boko haram death. What a monster!
Today, he wants to play little Bo Peep who has lost her sheep.

Yesterday, he was ram packed with tales of racial and numerical superiority, just that in his excitement, he completely forgot about who pays his bills; so today, the fool whose mouth has multiple arses is here to deceive teenagers about true federalism. On what planet does anyone, but a parasite claim that true federalism entails becoming even more dependent on awuf oil money than previously? Why would anyones most creative thoughts about development be about how to present a bigger beggars bowl? People like Gbawe have no shame.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-837167.0.html#msg9883217

What a damn fool.

sheyguy:

beaf, u are irredeemable.

Let me ask Nairalanders this.

What happens if absolutely nothing changes under GEJ and we then gain a devotee of elitist central control in 2015 like Atiku, Sambo, Gusau et al ? What would all the noise and hate against the North have amounted to? Hate that only made some embrace noise-making while they ignored calling out GEJ to subtly put measures in place that will mean , whatever happens in 2015, we are all somewhat closer to true federalism and the concept of developing at our own pace without an indolent centre holding the entire nation down !!

Nairalanders should open their eyes to the crass deception of those wishing to distract from GEJ's abysmal failings and penchant for the sort of inefficient model of Governance that has gotten us where we are today .

Beaf:

Some people think they will call, "fisherman!" and we will answer, "yes sir!"
Phuck you and whatever alms begging skills you bring to the table.