Former Presidential aide, Laolu Akande, has issued a call to action directed to President Bola Tinubu, to in the remaining three years of his administration, deliver a true federal constitution and reduce the poverty and untold hardship being faced by Nigerians.
Speaking on “Inside Sources with Laolu Akande”, a programme on Channels TV, on Friday, the former presidential aide addressed pressing national issues from the autonomy of local governments to the crisis in Kano Emirate system and the tasks awaiting the Tinubu administration.
“There are three important observations that I want to call attention to,” Akande began. “Number one, here on Inside Sources, we have been focusing on the issue of local government administration and how many state governments have emasculated local governments since 1999.”
But Akande had earlier expressed his delight at the recent action by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, who has taken significant steps to assert the autonomy of local governments by filing a case with the Supreme Court.
“Today, we are delighted to report that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Mr. Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, has filed a case with the Supreme Court to assert the autonomy of the local governments in Nigeria. Now, this is a very good and a very big deal.
“The Attorney General, a rather silent but prominent lawyer, has also spoken against some of the excesses of many governors, including how state electoral commissions have become simple appendages of state governments.
“Mr Fagbemi in this wise is clearly doing an excellent job. Kudos to him, he is a shining star in the Tinubu cabinet and we must also commend the President for appointing a very top-notch social justice-minded Attorney General.”
Turning to the ongoing crisis in Kano, Akande described it as a “national embarrassment.”
He explained, “What is happening in Kano is currently a national embarrassment. We have federal and state courts in at least three different volleys countering each other and giving conflicting orders after what happened last week with the restoration of Emir (Muhammadu) Sanusi by Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State.
“Thank God, the Chief Justice of the Federation has summoned the judges, but politicians have meddled so badly with the Kano Emirate system that it now seems otherwise that the lofty office of the Emir of Kano will be subjected to sheer political partisanship.”
Akande emphasised the urgency of addressing multidimensional poverty and security issues: “A true Federal Constitution will do for the transmission of this space called Nigeria and for the unleashing of the prosperity of our people, more than any other thing.
“Mr President, you have three more years to reduce the painful, heartrending level of multi-dimensional poverty in our country. Mr President, you have three more years to recalibrate the security architecture and attempt to scale down the rampant problem of insecurity in the land.
“Mr President and the APC as a ruling party have three more years to prove to Nigerians that the promises made in that epochal change movement of 2015 to Nigerians were not lies or deception after all,” Akande said.
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