20th February, 2013
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state says appointed federal ministers can never be in the same class with elected governors in the country, adding that many ministers have been acting in a way to usurp the powers of the governors.
Fashola spoke while delivering a lecture titled ‘The Essence of a Patriot and Federalist’, in commemoration of the 80th birthday anniversary of Alhaji Femi Okunnu at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, Victoria Island, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
The governor said he was pissed off when many ministers, because they were at the centre, thought they were equal or have greater power than the governors in their own state and often sought to take over the governance of such states from them. “Alhaji Okunnu, when he was a minister cooperated with his governor. He did not seek to dominate him because he was a federal minister. This is unlike some of the things we sadly hear today in some states where ministers levy war against the governor of the state they represent or against the state itself.
“These early perspectives are important in order to set things aright, that there can be only one elected head of a state and that is the governor. No minister has a higher authority over the affairs of a state in a democratic structure such as ours based on a federal arrangement because the governor is not subordinate to the president who is the appointor of a minister,” he stated.
According to the governor, “we have heard complaints about the powers that governors of Nigerian states now wield and this seems to worry some people. I understand some of these complaints seem to emanate from quarters whose experience was in the time that governors or military administrators were appointed.”
He said the current reality was that things had changed and that ministers must accept it “or if we do not like it, then it is open to us to change it, so that governors can be appointed instead of being elected.”
On plans by the federal government to impose consumption tax on the purchase of petrol at pump price, Fashola vowed that Lagos would resist it, as it was illegal and unconstitutional.
The governor stated that such levy is a consumption tax that is collectible by the territory in which the fuel is consumed.
He explained that the state with 592 state roads, 8,402 local government roads and 25 federal roads bear the burden of heavy tonnage, adding that it would be proper for such levy to be collected and used to fix the roads for the benefit of the people.
“Federal Government is already collecting royalties on extraction of crude oil, taxing the profits of oil companies at about 30 percent, taking 52.68 percent of the national revenues and leaving 36 states and 774 local government to 26.72 percent and 20.60 percent respectively.
“We will not lie at ease and watch a further encroachment. Currently we are in court to have the issues of centralisation of value added tax, another consumption tax, decentralised and left to each state according to the appropriate principles of federalism and derivation. The same applies to the attempt to encroach the power of states to raise revenues in their territories from lotteries, hotel licensing and other areas of residual authority of the state.
“The question to ask is what service the Federal Government provides for hotels either by water supply, waste management, healthcare of their staff or the provision of land for hotel business that gives it the impression that it can tax them,” he said.
“Beyond the registration of hotel as a company from which the Federal Government has already collected revenues through corporate Affairs Commission, what more service does it render to the hotel in the various state of the Federation,” he added. On the clamour for local government autonomy, the governor said it is the states that are federating to form a union and that local governments are not part of the federating arrangements.
“The simple point I want to make is to state that the question whether a local government should be autonomous or not, or what level of autonomy it gets, should be a matter for state law, by the state that creates them rather than a matter for constitutional grant,” Governor Fashola added.
Speaking, former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu described Alhaji Femi Okunnu as a true son of Africa and one who, during the civil, war bravely and facilitated negotiations between the feuding sides.
Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu 1, commended the celebrant for his exemplary life of service to humanity, the Nigerian nation and to Lagos State, praying that God would grant him long life and good health to spend many more years on earth.
Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon who chaired the event, said by all standards, Okunnu has gone a very long way in his life and given his very best in the service of the nation as the Federal Commissioner for Works and Housing. He added that in the trying times of the nation, all the projects and all the development seen around Lagos were done by Okunnu and the Lagos State Military Governor at that time, Brigadier General Mobolaji Johnson.
At the event were the celebrant’s wife, Alhaja Lateefat Okunnu, former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku; Olowu of Owu, Oba Dosunmu; business mogul, Chief Molade Okoya Thomas and several other eminent Nigerians.
—Kazeem Ugbodaga