Azeem Salako, a concerned resident of Ota, Ogun State, has penned an open letter to Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun, expressing deep concern over recent executive orders that restrict traditional rulers from participating in Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with industries.
In his letter, Salako acknowledges the governor’s prerogative to regulate land, mineral, and mining exploration within the state but argues against the blanket prohibition on traditional institutions in community-industrial relations.
He highlights the pivotal role of these institutions in facilitating employment, corporate social responsibility initiatives, and fostering local cooperation crucial for sustainable development.
Salako emphasizes that MOUs are essential tools for fostering partnerships and mutual benefit between communities and industries, contributing significantly to economic growth and stability.
He urges Governor Abiodun to reconsider the implications of the executive order, suggesting that it could potentially hinder rather than promote the state’s development goals.
His Excellency,
Prince Dapo Abiodun, CON,
Executive Governor,
Ogun State.
22 June 2024.EXECUTIVE ORDER RESTRAINING MONARCHS ON MOU: AN APPEAL FOR A RETHINK
I hope this message finds you well.
Your Excellency, I have read with the utmost shock the new executive orders issued by Your Excellency, which are now making the rounds on social media.
The three orders, in clear terms, created the Ogun State Mineral Resources Development Agency and the Ogun State Landscape and Recreation Agency and criminalised the major and developmental salutary roles of the traditional rulers in the state.
While I do not intend to grudgingly debate the constitutional jurisdiction of the governor to determine how land, mineral, and mining exploration within the state are controlled, I find the third order—banning traditional institutions in community-industrial relations—a tall order.
Your Excellency, the third executive order states, inter alia, that “from the date of this order, any individual, company, or organisation that enters into any Memorandum of Understanding or agreement with a traditional institution or stakeholders to whom this order applies in mining or industry shall be proceeded against in line with Section 61 of the Ogun State Criminal Law 2006, which prohibits interference with executive power.”.
It added that “any traditional institution or stakeholder in the institution who flouts this order shall be sanctioned in line with the provisions of the Obas and Chiefs Law and other relevant criminal statutes.”.
Your Excellency, for context, the order to ban the traditional institution from entering into any form of understanding or agreement with industry and companies within their traditional area will grossly affect and undermine the pace and prospect for development in these communities that make up the state.
Your Excellency ought to be aware that the major salutary area in which traditional institutions function is in the aspect of industrial-community relations, through which communities facilitate employment and corporate social responsibility (CSR) for their young people and community under a non-binding arrangement.
The host community, under traditional institutions, also reciprocates by providing local intelligence, building cooperation, and establishing a positive reputation that helps businesses thrive in these areas, from which the government gets the taxes to run the state.
Already, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) is not necessarily a binding arrangement but merely indicates that parties have mutually agreed to provide expectations and benefits to sustain and prosper a relationship; thus, the government should not find it contesting or an insurbordination act against state authority.
I am therefore, for this reason, appealing to Your Excellency to expressly remove the restraint on the traditional institution to play a salutary role in the area of community-industrial relations. My appeal, for clarity, does not include the exploration and exploitation of minerals, in which the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Mining Act 2007 can serve as guidance.
The implication of not adhering to this appeal and counsel, aside from further rendering the traditional institutions functionless, is that it will return the state to the dark era of violent conflicts that usually arise from face-offs between industries and host communities, in which the buffer role that traditional institutions play has curbed to a large extent.
Your Excellency, the copious addition of “industry and companies” to your prohibitive executive order, if you remain inconsiderate, would not also encourage these traditional institutions to support your agenda to rebuild Ogun State through facilitation and attracting businesses and investments to their domains in the state.
These traditional institutions have proven to be good tools for industrialization by invitation, preventing crises, fostering good industrial relations, creating employment opportunities for Indigenes, and empowering community development through corporate social responsibility. All these they achieve through understanding, cooperation, and agreement measures that your government has now placed on executive ban with criminal status.
Your Excellency, have an immediate change of mind on this aspect. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.
Accept the assurances of my best regards.
Azeem Salako
Ota, Ogun State.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
