The Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has
declared that the main opposition party in the state, the All
Progressives Congress (APC) requires training in democratic
governance.
The PDP, which was reacting to calls for the intervention of President
Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly in the dissolution of local
governments in the state said that APCโs abysmally poor knowledge
about democratic processes and procedures amount to a great disservice
to the teeming population of Nigerians who fought tooth and nail to
send the military men back to the barracks in 1999.
A statement by the Oyo State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Engr.
Akeem Olatunji, maintained that the APC needed to be educated on
constitutional procedures as far as Nigeriaโs 1999 Constitution (as
amended) is concerned.
The party said: โIt is appalling that a party that has led this state,
the Pacesetter State for good eight years, could still harbour
undemocratic tenets, such that it could be calling for invocation of
extra-constitutional means for the resolution of issues relating to
the management of Local Government Councils in the state.
โInitially, we thought that such an idea would only be bandied by the
sacked council chairmen, who were blinded by unbridled ambition. We
were, however, shocked to see the APC regurgitating a similar idea
earlier circulated by the illegal council chairmen.
โLet us freely offer the APC the advice they really deserve. The
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended)
clearly guarantees the democratic system of governance in the local
governments. The same constitution also enables the Houses of Assembly
of the States to make laws for the administration of local
governments, while also guaranteeing the establishment of joint State
and Local government accounts.โ
The PDP wondered why the APC, which only conducted election into the
local governments in the seventh year of its eight-year reign in Oyo
State is now playing to the gallery on constitutionality, querying why
the party did not remember the Presidency, the National Assembly and
the Rule of Law when it recycling caretaker committees as heads of the
local councils.
The statement added that the election that brought in the members of
ALGON was only conducted in the seventh year of the immediate past
administration against all known tenets of democracy and the Rule of
Law.
