Thursday 29 November 2012

Land Use Charge & other anti-people bills:

Who rescues Uyi Igbe, EDHA?
*as Oshiomhole continues manipulation
By Ken Edokpayi
 
It is no longer news that Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has descended heavily on the frail neck of the Edo State House of Assembly, strangulating the paper-weight leadership of the House to unquestionably, and most sheepishly, kowtow to his dubious manipulative skills in the express passage of anti-people bills to further compound the misery of innocent Edo people.
“What seems new and imperative,” according to Elder Solomon Edosomwan, a Benin-based public affairs commentator, who spoke with The Navigator recently, “is the hasty search for who will save the obviously naïve Hon. Uyi Igbe, the Edo State House of Assembly and the entire people of Edo State from further hardship in the hands of Governor Oshiomhole, who, having exhausted the state’s resources on God knows what, is desperately in search of more money, no matter where it comes from, to do only God knows what.”
   While calling on political leaders in Edo South senatorial district to urgently “rally round and influence a sense of positive direction for the embattled Speaker of the State Assembly, Rt. Hon. Uyi Igbe, who is the first Edo south indigene to be Speaker of the Assembly since the creation of Edo State, and may probably be the last,” the analyst observed that “this is pertinent because it is very obvious that Igbe didn’t come prepared for this position.”
Elder Edosomwan maintained that he totally aligned himself with the summation of Comrade Austin Osakue, another Benin-based social critic, public affairs discussant, and activist, who, while speaking on a television programme a couple of weeks ago, described the Edo State House of Assembly as “virtually non-existent.”  He pointed out that “this has been the submission of commentators on the state legislature, particularly since the emergence of the Hon. Uyi Igbe as Speaker some eighteen months ago.”
                He emphasized that with almost two years in the saddle, one would be compelled to ally with analysts who have submitted earlier on this vexed issue that the Edo State Governor, “Comrade Adams Oshiomhole simply anointed and appointed Hon. Uyi Igbe as Speaker because of his below average academic status and, therefore, someone the comrade governor could cage, manipulate and humiliate in the course of governing the state.”
                The public affairs analyst stressed that he was extremely bothered, not exactly about issues of accountability or transparency on the part of the governor, “because those are terrible issues of different comprehensive discourse,” but by the governor’s selfish psychological mathematic that he is the only shinning star, the greatest leader, in the pack of political elements in the state. Four years of governance in Edo State has revealed Oshiomhole as a governor, who is so self-indulgent, smart by his own assessment, and who believes that his intelligent quotient surpasses that of Edo people put together. 
“The governor’s track record reveals that of a leader who believes he must destroy other people’s reputation to become a great leader.  His period in governance reveals a chief executive who believes in the emasculation and gagging of other arms of government and other relevant institutions so as to be the sole champion in the state.  And while this lasts, so many people appear to be amused.”
Elder Edosomwan recalled that about three weeks ago, the Edo State House of Assembly passed a Resolution dissolving the Local Government Transition Committees, which had illegally presided over local government administration for two years, adding that but for reasons that were not immediately discernable, the comrade governor disagreed with the Resolution of the House and actually urged the Transition Committee Chairmen, in a behind the scene maneuvering, to return to their duty posts because “there is no vacuum in governance.” 
                In his words: “Everybody knows, even if the governor pretends not to know, that the House of Assembly regulates the conduct of elections in local government councils and, in fact, other matters related to local government administration. The Transition Committee Chairmen, who were urged to disregard the Resolution of the House, went back to their various councils, days after some of them had actually handed over to the most senior civil servant in the council.  The governor only capitulated when it became clear that as he was extending his outlaw frontiers and status, he was pushing dangerously towards enthroning anarchy in the state all by himself.  I found it surprising that with all the governor’s endowments, supposedly, he refused to accept the fact that Edo people were not with him on the continuous stay in office of the illegal transition committees.”
                While noting that that was perhaps one in the series of humiliations the governor had meted out on the House of Assembly recently, Elder Edosomwan revealed that some of the legislators were bold enough, in a meeting the governor summoned to resolve the debacle, to berate the governor for humiliating them publicly and smearing the House so loudly.
“The damage and humiliation was so deep and extensive to the extent that the present set of lawmakers is now generally perceived as misfits.  This was the political design of the governor, ab initio, when he installed Hon. Uyi Igbe as Speaker.  After publicly humiliating the entire legislature and casting doubts on the minds of Edo people as to whether the parliamentarians were fit and worthy to be in the House, the governor was said to have approved oversea trips and other palliatives for the lawmakers as a way of apology.  Sadly, too, the beat goes on.”
                Edosomwan remarked that, in line with the governor’s modus operandi and predictable mindset, after the truce and palliatives, the House of Assembly was again directed to give express passage to the Land Use Charge law 2012, a bill that had earlier been rejected by a majority of members of the House.
  The Land Use Charge Bill 2012, is actually a law to make provision for the consolidation of all land based rates and charges payable in Edo State into a single charge to be called Land Use Charge.  The bill is to make legal provision for the levying and collection of the charge and for purposes connected therewith.  When operational, the Land Use Charge shall be payable on all real property situated in Edo State and assessed for the purpose under the law.  The Land Use Charge is legally designed to be paid annually in respect of any property apart from those exempted from the payment.
                The relevant appointed government agents and assessors after a prior notice, would enter a given premises, inspect and assess, request documents or relevant information, and take photographs.  Thereafter, the owner of an assessed property is liable to pay land use charge in respect of the property.
                Said the analyst: “Considering our peculiar social and economic realities in the state, it is obvious that this law, brought into the state from Lagos, is harsh, anti-people and senseless.  No one understands the philosophy of this foreign bill.  Or is the governor suddenly forgetting so soon that a heavily industrialized Lagos and a civil-servant and peasant farming state, like Edo, are not the same?”
                It would be recalled that Edo people in their thousands were shocked at first when a majority of the so-called representatives of the people who, instead of speaking truth to the situation as expected, made desperate attempts to be noticed by the governor who wanted the Bill passed by all means, whether Edo people like it or not.
                Elder Edosomwan, however, commended four legislators in the House, who stood in defence of the poor and the voiceless in the society:  Hon. Jude Ise-Idehen, representing Ikpoba-Okha constituency, Hon. Bright Osayande, representing Ovia North East constituency, Hon. Patrick Osayimwen, representing Oredo East constituency and Hon. Patrick Aisowieren, representing Orhionmwon 1 constituency, were the only ones who were bold enough to speak the minds of the people and objected to the passage of the bill.
                He expressed disappointment at the silence of, particularly the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, legislators, in the House, who could not use the golden opportunity to make a point and give vibrancy to the quality opposition they should always muster in situations like this.  He described as “shameless” the desperate efforts of the Majority Leader, Hon. Philip Shaibu, to carry out his principal’s bidding, at the detriment of the House which would earn public odium.  “Otherwise,” he noted, “for a barely literate Shaibu to canvass the passage of the bill, on the grounds that it would usher in employment, is the height of deception and emptiness.” 
Quoting sources close to the State Assembly, Elder Edosomwan disclosed that “shortly after that day’s plenary, Hon. Shaibu was said to have requested for a copy of the day’s video recording of proceedings, ostensibly to forward it to the governor to know his friends and enemies in the House.  This was why just four members and the Speaker, who appeared not to be comfortable with the passage of the bill, disagreed while all others, who did not want to offend the governor, either supported the passage or abstained from canvassing any contrary position.”
He further noted that from 1999 till date, “the current membership, especially the imposed leadership, will turn out to be the worst in terms of representing the genuine desires and aspirations of the people.  The current members of the House, whose arrowhead has been Hon. Shaibu, are only interested in what pleases the governor and not what the people of Edo State want.”
While rounding off that the hope of good representation by the on-going House was already a lost battle, Elder Edosomwan wondered why a few weeks to the presentation of the 2013 Appropriation by the governor, he presented a supplementary budget of N9billion to the House for passage, and the supplementary budget was passed without critical screening. 
In his words: “Three weeks later, the 2013 appropriation was submitted for consideration. Taken together, the sights and sounds emanating daily from the state legislature have become offensive to the people who elected them.  There is no doubt that as a result of the very poor representation noticed by both leaders and voters, many of the members in the current House have reached dead ends politically.  Many of them ought not to have been in the House in the first place.  Above all, it is high time Edo South senatorial district moved to protect its own son, Hon. Uyi Igbe, from the rubbishing and humiliation of both the governor and his messenger in the House, Hon. Shaibu.  It is clear to all and sundry that the choice of Igbe as Speaker was self-serving and specially designed to make the House of Assembly weak and toothless.”
Following the backlash on this obnoxious executive bill from members of the public, The Navigator gathered that Hon. Paul Ohonbamu and Hon. Foly Ogedegbe, who represent Egor and Owan East respectively, have been variously lampooned by their constituents and the angry public.
While Hon. Ohonbamu’s volte-face and support for the anti-people bill was interpreted in some quarters to be his desperate attempts to make-up and remove his name from the governor’s Black Book, Hon. Ogedegbe was said to have been disowned by Owan people for betrayal and misrepresentation.  He is said to be “too comfortable now to the extent that he is too far away from the lives of the common people in Owan East.”
  TheNavigator

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