Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
A member of the House of Representatives, Oluwole Oke, has described the introduction of parliamentary system of government in the administration of local government areas in Osun State as “unconstitutional.”
Oke made the remarks in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja.Oke, who represents Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency of Osun, said the system was a flagrant rape on the nation’s Constitution that clearly spelt out the mode of administering all the levels of government.He said the current system in local government areas in Osun was an aberration which should be dispensed with without further delay.
The lawmaker enjoined the Osun State House of Assembly, in conjunction with the state executive, to ensure a speedy reversal of the obnoxious system in order not to bungle the spread of dividends of democracy in the state. According to him, parliamentary system of government under the country’s presidential system was a misnomer and its experimentation in Osun “has been brewing crises upon crises across the length and breadth of the state.”
He said the position of the constitution was clear on issues of law and administration as it is enshrined in Section 1(3) of the constitution.
“If any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this constitution, the constitution shall prevail and other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void. The system is an affront to the Federal Government; there should be uniformity of purpose in the system of government. As it is the case in Osun today, governance at the local government level is a bundle of confusion, which is not doing the citizenry any good. If the Federal Government has favoured parliamentary system of government, such will have been the ground norm of our constitution,” Oke said.
Oke who is of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) observed that the contextual provision of the constitution was not in agreement with the law of the land, which made it a mere criminal approach to governance with impunity.