DEAF, DUMB AND DEFINITELY NOT BLIND; THE CASE OF OUR RUBBER STAMP SPEAKER, THE GOVERNORS DUMMY: After my last post on how Adamawa state legislatures are showing how incompetent Imo state legislative arm lead by the governors dummy - a rubber stamp speaker is, I was challenged by his Senior Special Assistant on media Mr Emeka Ahaneku to prove my points with facts. Even though he labelled us paid bloggers while he is being paid by the speaker to defend an indefensible man, I have decided to prove to him why Rt. Hon. Benjamin Uwajimuogu is the governors dummy, a rubber stamp speaker, an embarrassment to 21st century legislative business. To start with, our governance culture recognises three arms of government. This three arms are guided by the constitution and operate on the basis of separation of powers and check and balances. The principle of separation of powers defines how their powers are shared eg executive executes the law, legislatures makes the law while judiciary interprets the law. Coming to a democratic setup like ours, the principle of check and balances becomes the veritable factor in sustaining our democracy. While separation of powers specify the modus operandi of government, check and balances which refers to a situation where organs of government act as watchdog to the other, ensures that governance is not hijacked or turn into dictatorship. Knowing the above background, the question is how has the executives and legislatures been able to abide in these two principles (separation of powers and checks and balances). In Imo state today, apart from budget presentation there is no visible sign that the legislatures are acting as a watchdog to the executives. If actually they claim to be doing that, can they specifically tell Imolites how many percentage of our annual budget is being implemented. A good legislative house supposed to have a budget implementation monitoring committee that over sees how much of the budget that is being implemented. Today in Imo state you can specifically state if we are operating surplus, balance or deficit budget. There has never been a time where ministries and parastatals are asked to refund unused budget allocation to the coffers of the government. If the speaker is not a rubber stamp one, how come the governor will be attempting to ask for a supplementary budget in the month December when other state governments are presenting new fiscal proposal. It took the uproar of Imolites to stop the speaker and his induced boys not to accept the proposal. If also the speaker is not a rubber stamp one, he wouldnt have accepted the mortification of our Local Government for an unconstitutional Community Government Council. If election can be organise in CGCs what stops the LGs election. How many times has the speaker and his errand boys invites members of the executives to account for fund gotten from federation account, SURE-P, LG allocations and IGR. Project monitoring is another oversight responsibilities of the legislature, the aim is to make sure that fund allotted to projects are judiciously used for that project. It also enable the legislature to control any corrupt tendency of the executive. Project monitoring does some specific jobs for the people. 1) it enables the legislature to quantify and qualify projects undertake by the executives as enshrined in the fiscal policy of the government. 2) it enables them to ascertain whether fund allotted to projects are used for such project. 3) it curbs diversification of fund. 4) it ensures that projects are handled with best practises. In Imo state today what we have is deaf, dumb and not blind oversight function. How can someone explain the rational of using Imo state fund to construct bull, xmas Carrolls, many roundabouts etc. How can someone explain the building of another hotel by the government when the state is in die-need of real industrial development, how can buildings underconstruction be collapsing and no body is being arrested, how can someone explain the rate of uncompleted projects in Imo state, how will they the tell us the positive impacts that a moulded bull will have on Imolites? To be continued.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 07:36:55 +0000
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