Adeleke and NULGE: Caught in their own dragnet, By Akinyele Akintola

Maybe, the Mike Ozekhome and the gang of NBA officers, as well as their jejune enthusiasts, should be told without mincing words that the issue of local government allocation is really not the bone of contentions in the ongoing war of attrition between the OSSIEC, Osun State Government, PDP on one side, and the APC and the reinstated local government Chairmen on the other.

Mike Ozekhome is no doubt a good lawyer but being smart or clever alone doesn’t win a court case. Being a good lawyer is not the same thing as being intelligent, brilliant and intellectually bright. Anyone can smartly pick up an umbrella for possible protection from rain or sunshine, it doesn’t require any intelligence to do that. The big Barrister is lacking in the cognitive ability to apply his legal education in the direction of knowledge and understanding of complex political concepts. He obviously can’t process information through unbiased understanding and reasoning. I watched him on Channels TV recently and felt touched about how he continued to ridicule himself with outright disinformation and flimsy sentiments.

The bone of contention, that is the main dispute or real point of conflict, is the illegal dismissal of the constitutionally elected Chairmen and other council officers by the Adeleke administration in Osun. Anyone, any group, any political observer that wants to dabble into the dispute must do so taking into cognizance the root cause of the crisis.

The dismissed elected council officers and the APC went to court to challenge the vindictive and insensitive decision of the government. And, the matter was decided in favour of the Chairmen and APC. Fortunately, this same Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, was involved in defending the OSSIEC and PDP in the matter before the Appeal Court. His cleverness or smartness, which he is now displaying on television couldn’t win the case in the competent Court of Appeal. He failed his clients and, shamelessly, though, he’s now engaging in mere self help.

One would have expected him to encourage his clients to proceed to the Supreme Court to challenge the decision of the Appeal Court but like all smart people, he encouraged his gullible clients to go ahead and conduct a fresh local government election. And, this was done barely two weeks after the judgement, yet against the advice of the Attorney General of the Federation and the IGP.

As if that was not enough, the local government workers were lured irrationally and foolishly too to embark on lawless strike action which has been prolonged than most people envisaged. As I write, the staff members of the councils have abandoned their duties for almost 8 months now. This can only happen when charlatans are in power. No responsible governor will fold hands and allow the local government system to be so paralyzed by workers.

The irony of this serious dereliction and gross indiscipline is: the same government that is crying and weeping all over the place is still paying the workers for jobs they are not doing. Isn’t that foolishness on the part of a wayward government? Where in the world would such nonsense take place if not under  pathless and ineffectual puppets?

Those advocating for the release of the withheld local government allocations should also tell us into which account they want the funds to be released. Is it the state government account or a Joint Local Government Account? In both ways, who will then operate the account by way of spending? The state government or the absentee council officers or the sitting council Chairmen that Adeleke has refused to recognize or his own “Gbelegbo” (lameduck) Chairmen who have been home since they were sworn in by the governor? So, you see what I mean when I say that the issue of Local Government Allocation is not the real conflict and should not be the argument at all.

The president or the Federal Government should not, and would not make the mistake of releasing the allocation to the state government. This is so, because it is local government allocation and the local governments have not been functioning since February, this year.

Conversely, the political office holders have been performing their duties diligently without being paid by the state government. The political office holders have maintained security protocols for peace and tranquility in each local government since they were reinstalled by the Court of Appeal ruling of February 10, 2025. Despite the fact that one of them was callously murdered, the Chairmen and their Councilors have been doing wonderfully well at maintaining the integrity of the Councils. But for their resilience, diligence, and peaceful approach to the imbroglio, a state of emergency would have proclaimed on the state. May the soul of Remi Abass continue to rest in peace. He surely will not die in vain.

It is on records that each Council Chairman has been spending roughly N2 million every month to maintain security in their respective local government areas. They have been spending fortunes to maintain the council and its environment, and have been attending to critical issues of governance, including chieftaincy matters, market sanitation and disputes, maintenance of public health facilities and so on. They have been rendering these services with zeal and patriotism despite the vindictive hostility of the state government and Givernor Adeleke himself.

If the money has to be released, it is clear that only the reinstated Local Government Chairmen deserve to be listened to by the Federal Government and the offices of Attorney General of the Federation and IGP. The President should not listen to reckless noisemakers who are only entangled in their own dragnet.

The Osun State Government is only trying to be smart, yet those advising the governor are lacking in the knowledge and understanding of complex political intrigues. There is no dispute whatsoever on the local government allocation. The subject of disagreement, the real conflict is who actually should head the local councils: the legitimate Chairmen that were reinstalled by the Appeal Court and whose tenure will last for the next three years? Or, those that were selected through a “Hide-and-seek” exercise by Governor Adeleke’s OSSIEC?.

The Federal Government will not act on any false assertion by the state government and those paid agents who are struggling to replace an Appeal Court ruling with mere drawn out kitten meowing. Such reckless and lawless crying for attention will not resolve the conflict, only obedience to the Rule of Law, obedience to the Appeal Court ruling and respect for the constituted authorities of the incumbent and elected political office holders will resolve the crisis.

The Local Government workers should, as a matter of importance and necessity, return to their mandatory official duties and assignments.

The governor should respect the law and recognize the legally reinstated Local Government political office holders.

The political office holders and the civil servants will then approach the Federal Government through their authorized principal officers to request for the allocations.

It is then the state government can have legitimate roles to play in the administration of the Councils and for the development of the state.

Otherwise, the OSSIEC and the state government should approach the Supreme Court for the valid interpretation of the judgements of the Appeal Court. Q.E.D.

Enough of disinformation and orchestrated confusion on this matter. Ko si abuja l’orun ope. There is no shortcut or default route to climbing a palm tree.

Or, is there?

• Hon. Akinyele Akintola, a media consultant/political commentator, writes from Ilesa, Osun State