Human rights lawyer and activist Liborous Oshoma has condemned the continued withholding of local government allocations to Osun State, describing the situation as a mix of “high-handedness” and “legal illiteracy” by state and federal authorities, despite a Supreme Court ruling affirming local government autonomy.
Speaking on ARISE News on Monday, Oshoma said the decision to block Osun’s local government funds for almost a year was legally indefensible and politically dangerous.
“I think it’s a mark of high-handedness on one side and illiteracy on the side of the governor. High-handedness on the side of the Attorney-General and illiteracy on the side of the governor,” he said.
Oshoma argued that even if the tenure of the affected local government officials was considered to have been truncated, the appropriate legal response was clear.
“The best you could have done would be this: since the tenure was truncated prematurely, despite the fact that a court had said the suit was premature, pay them their salaries and allowances and then let them go. You can now conduct a fresh election.”
He criticised the state Attorney-General for failing to take decisive legal steps following the Court of Appeal judgment.
“That’s what the Attorney-General should have done, instead of just skipping the file, folding his hands and waiting for God knows what,” Oshoma said.
The lawyer also faulted the governor’s response after the appellate court ruling.
“The moment that Court of Appeal judgment came, holding that the suit by the PDP was premature, the governor ought to have approached the Supreme Court, either for a stay or for any order that would have given him the legal platform to validly proceed.”
Explaining the legal confusion surrounding the Osun crisis, Oshoma said multiple court cases complicated the matter, but that failure to appeal one of them proved costly.
“What happened in Osun was that there were two cases — one by the PDP and the other by the APP. The PDP matter was the one the Court of Appeal vacated. The APP judgment was never appealed. They held on to the idea that the Court of Appeal had decided a sister matter, forgetting that there was still a subsisting suit.”
He added that the Attorney-General failed to acknowledge the legal deadlock created by these cases.
“Against all of this backdrop, what one would have expected the Attorney-General to say was that there is a quagmire created by all parties. But he didn’t. It was as if he was walking from the question to the answer.”
Oshoma also blamed the governor for relying on flawed legal advice.
“Rather than approach the Supreme Court, the governor was busy looking for advice from the same Attorney-General that was acting against his interest.”
Calling on President Bola Tinubu to intervene, Oshoma argued that the continued withholding of funds violated the constitution and undermined democracy.
“President Bola Tinubu, having suffered the same fate as a governor under Obasanjo, has no moral or legal ground to insist that state and local government funds accruable to Osun should still be withheld in utter violation of Section 162(6) of the 1999 Constitution.”
He proposed a straightforward resolution.
“Whatever the misgivings or politics at play, the best thing to do is to pay off the former council members whose tenure was truncated and start on a clean slate.”
According to Oshoma, the situation reflects a deeper structural flaw in Nigeria’s federal system.
“All of this is happening because we operate a feeding-bottle system of government, where everybody runs to Abuja to suck from the same bottle. In a true federal system, revenue should be generated from the bottom to the top.”
He warned that the continued withholding of funds punishes ordinary citizens, not politicians.
“The people that are suffering are the ordinary people of Osun, not the government.”
Oshoma urged the President to direct the release of the funds immediately.
“The option available to President Tinubu is to order the Finance Minister and the CBN to release the allocations meant for these local governments, and then pursue a political solution.”
He concluded that democracy cannot thrive under selective enforcement of the law.
“You cannot consistently hold on to funds meant for local government and still preach democracy and integrity.”
Boluwatife Enome
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