Shortly after the April meeting of the Federal Executive Council, the Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa, slapped a nine-page memo on the table of his boss, president Umaru Yar'Adua. The subject was dubiously inviting: how to whip the Lagos State administration in line, a Next on Sunday investigation has revealed.

Unknown to most Nigerians, the August 25 2009 wrangling between the Yar'Adua administration and the Lagos State government had its origin three months earlier in an April 2009 secret memo referenced HAGF/SH/2009/Vol. 1/15.

In the memo, Mr. Aondoakaa, urged the president "to take proactive and effective measures to counter the present breach of the constitution by the Lagos State Government." He also asked the president to fix a specific time frame for the state government to revert to the original 20 local government area failing which the "Federal Government will be constrained to take necessary measures to defend the constitution and protect the sanctity of the Nigerian State."

Mr. Aondoakaa structured his memo in the style of a war plan, arguing that the Lagos State government in conducting the 2008 local government elections did not adhere to his advice.

Having received president Yar'Adua's approval, Mr. Aondoakaa wrote an August 25, 2008 letter to the Governor of Lagos State, Raji Fashola, asking him to "suspend the elections on the ground that doing otherwise would amount to patent illegality and breach of the constitution." He thereafter told the president that Lagos State's stance on the issue, if not corrected, is capable of "threatening national security, undermining the constitutional role of the judiciary and challenging the authority of the Federal Government."

For Mr. Aondoakaa, this is the escalation of a three-month action plan hitherto on the drawing board. Citing section 5(3) of the 1999 Constitution which limits the executive powers vested in a state, he described the position of Lagos State as an affront on the Constitution.

Seeking to validate his position, the Attorney General made reference to a suit between Chief Taiwo Joseph Tovi-Hungevu and Abraham O. Ogabi & 4ORS in the Lagos High Court where the court had pronounced that the "Local Government Council is operating without the constitutional backing and is therefore operating illegally."

Reacting to the development, Akin Oyebode, a professor of Law at the University of Lagos, said "the way and manner the letter was couched" was "magisterial," adding, "It was like if an order is originating from a central government to a prefecture in the French system and a state under the Nigerian constitution is not a prefecture and the governor is not a prefect."

Ademola Popoola, a Professor of Law at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, agrees with Mr. Oyebode and decried the strong arm tactics of Mr. Aondoakaa who he said has a "one size fits all" federal sensibility.

"As far as I know the Lagos State assembly has a law which enables elections to be conducted even in those local council development areas. So, for me, we should even applaud them for democratising, for bringing government near to the people in a democratic process," Mr. Popoola said.

But Mr. Aondoakaa repertoire had an added element: to justify his allegation against the Lagos government for "permitting the diversion of monies meant for the running of 20 constitutionally recognised local governments to 37 other illegally created bodies."

This, Mr. Aondoakaa said, can "potentially constitute criminal offences under the ICPC and EFCC Acts and could therefore create grounds for criminal prosecution upon the receipt of a complaint or petition to any of the said agencies by an affected person in Lagos State."

The Lagos State government, through its governor, Babatunde Fashola, has responded that it acted legally in creating the Local Council Development Areas behind the controversy. The response of the Lagos State government has drawn commendation from Mr. Oyebode. "I like the seasoned polite response by Fashola which was a very legalistic response without any tantrums or whatever, asking the federal government that if it feels aggrieved it should take the course that gentlemen should take.

The federal government approach was tantamount to a bolekaja approach. It was most uncalled for, provocative in the extreme and definitely uncivil and unstatesman like," he said.

Mr. Oyebode also cautioned against provocative actions that stir up tension. "You can make any allegation in the world but be sure you can prove it," he said, adding that the "the onus is on the federal government to prove that there has been a case of misallocation or diversion of funds."

He urged Mr. Aondoakaa to exercise caution, considering that "Lagos State has more internally generated revenue than any other state in the country."

He noted that the internally generated revenue of Lagos State "used to be ₦14 million" and may have gone up to 18 every months. "My suspicion is that the Lagos State government does not need to even tamper with the allocation from FAC [the Federal Allocation Committee] because they are generating enough fund locally and internally to sustain these local government areas."

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5444322-147/story.csp


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