Afe Babalola asks southern governors to implement resolutions

Eminent jurist, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), yesterday, urged the southern governors to set up a committee to deliberate on how to implement the lofty resolutions in the communiqué at their meeting held in Asaba, Delta State recently.

The 17 governors from different political parties in the southern part of the country had made a 12-point resolution on the state of the nation at the meeting held on Tuesday, May 12, 2021.

The legal icon noted that the governors did not suggest the mode of implementation of any of the resolutions.

“Nigerians have been met with numerous ideas and suggestions without suggesting how to implement them, thereby rendering such resolutions worthless. Ideas rule the world but only those who translate them into reality are those that change the world,” he said.

Babalola, in an open letter to the southern governors, which was made available to newsmen in Ado Ekiti, called on them to hold either a physical or a virtual meeting to discuss the implementation strategy of their resolutions.

“For instance, the governors should direct their respective Houses of Assembly to enact laws banning open grazing. After all, under the Land Use Decree, the land is vested in the governors.

“On the issue of dialogue/conference, which the president had foreclosed, as a viable option, I urge the governors to support the ‘Summit of Hope’ which was hailed by over 21 Obas (monarchs) and over 500 people present at the Bar Lecture on May 4, 2021. The highly respected Ooni of Ife openly accepted the offer and has undertaken to contact past presidents, past and present governors on the project.

“Arrangements are in progress by the implementation committee of the summit to actualise the resolutions.

“I call on the governors to support this initiative to which I have committed N50 million in addition to my provision of venue, accommodation and feeding,” the popular lawyer said.

Lauding the governors, Babalola, who is the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, said that if Nigerian politicians had been rising above party politics the way the 17 governors did, the country would not have been plunged into the problems afflicting it today.