Only God Can Call Obj to Order.

(From The News (Nigeria) - AAGM)

Byline: Ernest Omoarelojie

It Has Been a No-Love-Lost Relationship Between the Federal And Lagos State Governments Over the Creation of Additional Local Government Areas. in a Bid to Ease the Logjam, the State Assembly Recently Amended the Law That Created Them in a Manner Observers Believe is a Capitulation to the Centre. Idowu Obasa, Chairman of Onigbongbo, One of the Affected Local Government Areas, Spoke With Ernest Omoarelojie On This And Other Issues

The Lagos State Assembly recently took an action that appears to have reversed the 57 local government structure to its former 20. How would you react to this, given the fact that your local government is one of those affected?

What they did is to amend existing laws. The law under which we were elected is the same law that exists as amended. That law sought to create 57 new Local Government Councils and abolished the old 20 Local Government structure. That is, arithmetically, what that law means is 20-20+57 which is equal to 57. But in view of the mischievous ranting of the central government regarding names, what the amendment has done is to say that the names of the Local Governments which appear in the constitution will be left intact and 37 new Local Government have been created. That is, 20+37 equals also 57. So before the amendment, there were 57 Local Governments in Lagos State.

After the amendment, there are still 57 Local Governments in Lagos State. This is my own interpretation of what was done. What it means is that my Local Government, before the amendment, was one of the newly created 37 Local Governments. After the amendment, it remained one of the newly created 37 Local Governments. The point is that we were created by a law, a law that was made by the appropriate body that was made to make laws.

Your explanation appears a bit confusing; too technical for the ordinary Lagosian. How would you explain it in a manner they will understand?