AHEAD OF THE TIMJUL SUMMIT
5th December 2021
There’s no doubt that in 5days time , Igboland would witness a knockout Summit on REVAMPING DEMOCRACY from the TOWN UNION level , anchored by TIMJUL DYNAMIC SERVICES LIMITED, which promises to help us go down memory lane to recall , reconnect and bestir us with the missing link in our fragile democracy in Nigeria, which has been responsible for lethargic, woeful failures that led to our current political and economic stagnation in growth , development and prosperity.
It’s most unfortunate that Nigeria’s journey to democracy, has been piloted by political opportunists, whose callow in democratic governance was a mere window, from where they reaped the windfall of total neglect of the veritable existence of Town Unions and Local Government democracy .
Nigeria’s former Military and Political Rulers were jack of All Trade and Master of None .
Those who purportedly advises them became collaborators in killing the most important arm of our democracy from the grassroots and sowed the seeds of retrogression in the delivery of the dividends of democracy to the people, who by conventional wisdom and standards, are the Political Sovereign of Democracy in every nation .
Even with our booming oil wealth all these decades and years , former and current Political Rulers ebbed development at the grassroots, when they gave vent to those in-charge of governance at the State Government level, who operated as overlords in usurping the Local Government shares of the Federated Revenue contrary to the dry letters of the provisions of the Constitution, in order to enrich themselves with stolen funds meant for the improvement of the people at the grassroots, and consequently, killed the Town Union and Local Government democracy .
This unpatriotic behavior and conscious shirking of responsibility, is bound to change after this forthcoming Summit at Amaechi Hall , Rockview Hotel Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria, come Friday, December 10, 2021 .
Our people should be encouraged to return to the democratic drawing board and ignite their Town/Community Union socialization and make it the basis of future political emancipation that would cause an earthquake political change across Nigeria in the nick of time .
I am not surprised that social misfits and moral failures in our society, exploited the prevalent loopholes and rushed to political kingmakers from the North and entrenched themselves in sensitive political offices at the State level contrary to political wishes of the people, whose mandate became rubbished at the Supreme Court, with the tacit acquiescence of their political sympathizers in the Court and Northern Political Mentors, who do care a heck about the feelings and wishes of the people and to what happens to our democracy as at date .
These political opportunists are in the minutest minority and must not be given the chance any more to hold our democracy to ransom.
Their time of destructive bad faith is over .
We must through this Summit sensitize our people to embrace self political reliance and grassroot political organization towards reclaiming their political identity and importance in the nation’s body politic.
If we do not make this move , opponents to the revamping of Town Union and Local Government Democracy, would continue their merciless exploitation, denying our people their due under the economic plans of government, starving the grassroots of direly needed funds for development in all basic strata of Community and Local Government life , and they would continue to hold sway , the ace to our common survival .
With ideas brainstormed and reached at this Summit and subsequent Summits ( we should have more Summits until our ideas sink in our people’s political consciousness and until we reactivate the life blood of Town Union and Local Government Democracy in Igboland, as political launchpad to the center, regardless of the thinking and political ideology in other parts of the country.
I therefore use this auspicious moment to congratulate my close friend , CEO/ED of TIMJUL DYNAMIC SERVICES LTD , Prime motivators, organizers, Resource Persons and stakeholders to this very important Summit, for their thoughtfulness, ingenuity and passion in anchoring the Summit, which is long in coming .
I salute your courage in taking this bold step to sound it to our people at the grassroots and those constantly nominating themselves for political offices at the State and Federal Government levels , that democracy at the grassroots remains our political life wire and ladder to the top and must never be compromised by any political pressure from the North and their political collaborators from our side , who out of mere pot of porridge, prefer to continue to sabotage and sustain their evil agenda, to undermine our political resolve to organize at the grassroots.
As we strive to agitate for Constitutional review and reforms, we must never allow State Chief Executives and their enablers to kill our Local Government System for selfish gains , rip us off and we must never allow them rape our Constitution with impunity, without sanctions and consequences.
In the United States , the election of the President, starts from the State (grassroot) level with the cur-courses , from where the people experience and have the inevitably first choice of their judgement of the personality of the next President for the country.
We claim that we are practicing and imitating American Presidential System of Democracy and yet fall terribly short of all that makes democracy thick in America and all that has contributed to the long endurance of America’s democratic leadership and institutions, which no one , however highly placed , has been allowed to tinker with and undermine for self purposes and aggrandizement .
We must stand up this time in Igboland to be counted and we must not fail our people to whom power belongs , and from whom government constitutionally must derive its power of governance .
We must teach our so called political rulership and actors that Nigeria is a democracy and not an extension of Military Rule, where they act out of political reason , abuse , circumvent and violate the Constitution of the country without legal consequences of risks of impeachment and removal from office.
We must begin to stamp the ideas and knowledge democratic norms in the heads of those prone to oppose our efforts at restructuring our political system and restoring the rudiments of democracy at the Town Union / Local Government levels , who have never meant well to us in the survival of democracy in our land .
We must learn to be courageous in calling our erring political representatives to order for change and proper accountability, reminding that political office is meant to render public service and not for personal brigandage to rip off the people at the grassroots and covert funds legally allotted for their development, from the Federation Account.
We must let State Governors know that they are not absolute rulers or Emperors, to the level arrogating themselves, non existent Constitutional Powers to kill and emasculate our Local Government System to their own detriment and selfish advantage .
We must strive to work with the Nigerian Bar Association at branch levels of our society to initiate and take proper legal actions against those public officers and institutions, violating our Constitution and undermining our democracy without legal reprisals , which has been the way we have been operating blindly in Nigeria and think of getting away with it .
I wish you the best Summit preparations and outing , as well as Warmest Christmas Celebrations.
May the Good Lord Who started this great work bring it to perfect accomplishment. May He keep you safe and grant you all journey mercies to and fro this all important Summit.
CONGRATULATIONS !
Barr Vitalis Unachukwu
Philadelphia, United States 🇺🇸
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