Since ascension of office as the Executive Governor of Kwara state on the 29th May, 2019, a lot of pressure has been heaped on Governor Abdurrahman Abdurrazaq from different quarters of the society to as a matter of necessity assent to the Freedom of Information Bill passed at the twilight of Kwara 8th Assembly.
Weighing on the matter, an Abuja-based, Ilorin-born legal practitioner and the All Progressive Congress Chieftain, Barrister Senior Ibrahim Sulyman described the call for Gov. Abdurrahman to sign the bill into as a ‘dissipation of energy’, noting that the governor’s reluctance to sign the bill into law is not a constitutional wrongdoing.
The statement read: “I have heard the hues and cries over the Kwara State Freedom of Information Bill which has not yet been assented to. It is not out of place not to assent to it because the position of the law as at today is the Court of Appeal decision which makes the Freedom of Information Act applicable to all the states in Nigeria, since that is the case, domestication of the FOI Act or assenting to FOI bill becomes an unnecessary dissipation of energy by virtue of the doctrine of covering field. i.e in an instance where the Federal legislature and the State legislature can legislate on the same subject matter and they did; in the event of conflict of laws, the State law will be void to the extent of its inconsistencies with the Federal law.
Therefore, it becomes unnecessary to advocate for FOI bill to be assented to; rather Enetsud and other similar civil society groups should take advantage of the FOI Act already applicable to Kwara State.”
While commenting on public call on the governor to openly declare his assets as done by his counterpart in Oyo state, Mr. Sulyman said it is not constitutionally mandatory for the governor to publicly declare his assets since he has documents all assets with the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), noting anyone interested in accessing the documents has the legal liberty to approach the CCB.
“Secondly, it is also erroneous for any one to call for public declaration of assets of political office holders in the state. What the law expects of such persons is to declare their assets to C.C.B and whoever that is interested in knowing what they declared can simply apply to CCB under the Freedom of Information Act to get their asset declaration forms, since they are public documents in custody of a federal agency instead of making comments that will not get them the desired result.” He added.
He also reflected on the letter Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari raising a red flag over the security menaces battling the nation.
“Finally, on the letter written to President Buhari by Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, honestly security issues are serious issues that should not be used to serve political ends.
In as much as there are areas that seems like recommendations and advise in the letter which to me is commendable as being patriotic; unfortunately there are areas that over bloated the security challenges we have in this country.”
Mr. Sulyman further stressed that the security challenges as immanent in the country dated back to 1999.
“The security challenges in this country has never been a one day thing, I do not know of a time we do not have one security issue or the other since 1999 till date, I could remember the high profile murder of former A.G.F, late Harry Marshall, to Zaki biam, Udi Massacre, repeates Jos and Kaduna crises, to Niger Delta militants, later Boko Haram and now herdsmen, and banditry.
So we are all aware of a period Nigerians can not freely go to their respective places of worship or social gathering.”
The APC chieftain noted that President Buhari’s administration deserves commendation for the manner it has tackled the issue of security and insurgency in the country compared to previous political dispensation.
“So it will be unpatriotic to score the present administration zero in terms of security; at the same time there is a need to be pro_active and improve on what we have, the present administration though a fair improvement from the previous administration, there is a need to be more proactive till the best is achieved in terms of security of lives and properties in Nigeria.”
