Budget 2012 proposal made by Governor Peter Obi has confirmed the fears of many that the APGA government is evading the conduct of local government elections in the state and that Anambra needs a struggle similar to that undertaken and won by the whole nation in 1999 for the central government and the state governments.
It is noteworthy that all progressive and law-abiding states have equally enthroned civil rule at the local government level, but not so Anambra where APGA has set the hand of the clock backwards.
In the budget proposal there is no capital vote has been provided for ANSIEC for purposes of conducting the local government electrions, showing that it is the last thing on the agenda of the state government.
The development also confirms the speculation of many that the dramatized sack of the chairman of Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC), Prof Titus Eze, may indeed be a well choreographed Maradonic drama, aimed at keeping ANSIEC in an artifificial state of confusion in order to achieve the objective of evading elections..
Were is not so, the APGA state government under the leadership of governor Obi would have fought harder in and out of the courtrooms to ensure that ANSIEC activities continue in the interest of the state.
ACN hereby calls on the Anambra State House of Assembly to evoke the powers of appropriation given to the house by the constitution to infuse an adequate amount into the budget for the conduct of local government elections in the 21 states of Anambra State.
By implication, ACN calls on the house to make the tenure of the subsisting caretaker governments at the local government level non renewable at the end of this term in March 2012.
For ACTION CONGRESS OF NIGERIA ANAMBRA STATE CHAPTER
Okelo Madukaife
State Publicity Secretary
