President Olusegun
Obasanjo has said
that his objection to the creation of new local governments by some state governors was to protect the constitution.
On the Other hand, Governor Abdullahi Adamu of Nasarawa State accused his political opponents for the dispute that predicated the president’s decision to withhold local governments allocations.
President Obasanjo and Abdullahi Adamu spoke yesterday at the 3rd meeting of the presidential council on tourism held in Lafia, Nasar-awa State capital.
According to the presi-dent, Governor Abdullahi Adamu and his colleagues must have misunderstood the constitution while trying to satisfy their people.
“What he (Adamu) was doing was trying to satisfy the people but while doing that, he might have misread the constitution,” the president said.
Speaking earlier, Gove-rnor Adamu said the disagr-eement over the new cou-ncils has given rise to unfo-unded speculations by his adversaries.
“Attempts were even made by some desperadoes to call our loyalty to the president and the federal government to question.”
He added that, “our poli-tical opponents were enga-ged in a fruitless expedition. But like the poor fisherman they are, they returned home empty handed because they mistook mirage for a fish pond,” Adamu stated.
Adamu stressed that the federating units should not be afraid to disagree with the centre on matters of law or the principles and interp-retation of the constitution.
“What we find totally unacceptable and which must be discouraged is the propensity of the idle political jobbers to turn every disagr-eement into a raging political controversy from which they expect to reap cheap and dirty rewards,” he added.
As a solution, Adamu said, he has taken the painful decision to down grade the new councils into devel-opment areas as counselled by the federal government.
The one-day PCF meeti-ng is expected to review the last meeting held in Abuja and fashion out modalities for future implementation of tourism projects.
The meeting was atten-ded by the governors of Bauchi, Cross Rivers, sole administrator of Plateau, deputy governors of Kebbi, Lagos, Kaduna and minis-ters.
Meanwhile, Governor Umar Musa Yar’aduas of Katsina State has said that arrangements have been concluded to suspend the operations of its 30 newly created local governments.
Already, government has initiated an amendment bill which would be submitted to the state House of Assembly to effect the suspension of the newly created local gov-ernments which were established by an Act of the State Assembly.
The governor who made this known at an interactive session with journalists yesterday at government house in Katsina noted that the suspension followed an agreement reached with President Olusegun Obas-anjo and five other governors whose local government allocations were withheld by the federal government over the legality of the newly created local governments in the affected states.
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