For the last 12 years, operating under the parliamentary system of government, local government chairmanship downwards to councillor wards elections have not been held in Osun state. Hence the government at the local level that is meant to be closest to the people has been non-existent, replaced by appointed caretaker administrators. These caretakers (implicit in their name) are put in place to manage and not govern, as such they are not answerable for their actions to the citizens; they are only accountable to the power that appointed them.
This situation as inadvertently resulted in a vacuum in governance at the lower strata of the state’s democracy. Just to put this in perspective for the layman, assume we conducted only elections to bring in PMB , the senate and the lower house in the last elections, and then we invested the president with the power to appoint whomever he pleases as governors to all 36 states, with all these appointees answerable only to the president. This fine margin between democracy and dictatorship has been the reality for Osun state through the last three tenures of governance.
As such, I would like to commend the Osun State House of Assembly (OSHA) on their reversal of the parliamentary system of government back to a presidential system. This singular piece of legislation passed after 12 years, is an encouraging development and a significant victory for democracy as a whole in Osun State. However, I find lauding the efforts of the ‘OSHA’ to be as comical, as some of the popular conjectures that surrounds its emergence, or the ease with which it was passed, and the haste in its execution, all these coming on the heels of the ignominious defeat of the incumbent Governor at the just concluded election.
While some would have us believe that it is a reversal in good faith by our able legislators, from a neutral stance, I would attempt to objectively examine the brutal questions of ‘’who, what and why’’. ‘’Who passed it. How did we end up with a parliamentary system in the first place’’; ‘’what was the aim of the perpetrators’’; ‘and ‘’why are they suddenly in a haste to legislate a law now’’.
Fortunately in answering ‘’who’’, we need look no further than the APC led government under Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. A stance which was then upheld for the 4 years duration of Governor Oyetola’s Tenure, and one which i conjecture would have been sustained if the polls had gone in favour of the incumbent Governor.
In answer to ‘what’ their agenda was, the following presumptions can be made; To centralise control of all local and state government allocations from the Federal level to the office of the Governor; Deny state citizens the opportunity to elect credible candidates of their choice some of which would be from opposing political parties into power. This in turn led to the absence of opposition voices on critical issues, the repercussions of which are far reaching.
To provide some basis to my earlier conjecture and presumptions, it’s important to note that this ‘’Legal’’ abuse of power by the 2 APC led administrations was simply an exploitation of a loophole in the law. A loophole they exploited for 12 years. A loophole they could have fixed at any point during their 12 years rule, so why fix it now.
A man rapes a child in his charge, causing mental and emotional trauma, then packages her off as a bride to a new groom, do we grant him the award for Best Father Figure. As significant as this piece of legislation is for Osun State, I firmly believe that the Oyetola led APC administration deserves no plaudits for it, because for them, it was only done in an attempt to prevent the incoming PDP party from employing this same loophole to cripple the political viability of their own outbound party. It therefore comes as no surprise that the just invested OSIEC as rolled out election plans with dates preceding handing over of power by the outgoing governor. If all I stated before were conjectures, I leave this piece of information for the jury to do with as they will.
To conclude, I would be adapting a famous proverb, ‘’A stitch in this law at this time in history, thou it indeed has saved Nine more’’, was so delayed that it left a gaping hole in the underpants of Osun State’s Democracy, subjecting it to an onslaught of brutal rape for 12 years by our ‘’late coming legislators’’. The mental trauma from this singular act, is evidenced by the burden of debt we are currently sinking under, serving as indelible scars on our backs, living proof of our inglorious assault by an ‘’Autocratic Democracy’’.
(C) Ogungbamigbe S.O (Prince Asiwaju) is a writer, trained engineer, agripreneur, and an advocate for ideological emancipation.
He is a graduate of the premier university, University of Ibadan.
