– Says, House Of Assembly Lacks Power To Usurp Local Government Street Naming Responsibility
Chinedu Agu, a renowned Legal Practitioner, has expressed reservation over the resolution passed by the Imo State House of Assembly to change the name of Douglas Road, Owerri, to Hope Uzodinma Road.
According to Barr Agu, “Having resumed from legislative recess, one would expect the Imo Assembly’s first order of business to be tackling insecurity, probing the rot in our justice sector and health sector, and demanding accountability for billions of naira in federal allocations, or debating how to revive the dwindling economy of the state. Instead, the House chose symbolism over substance: passing a resolution to rename Owerri’s historic “Douglas Road” to Hope Uzodinma Road.”
The lawmakers justified the move by citing the legacy of Harold M. Douglas, the colonial District Commissioner whose tenure in the early 1900s is remembered for cruelty, exploitation, and the Ahiara and Eziama massacres. According to them, removing Douglas’s name is an act of decolonisation”.
The legal luminary also stated that, “Even Rochas Okorocha, for all his excesses and empire-building tendencies, resisted the temptation to name any major road in Owerri metropolis after himself. It was a line he would not cross. This Assembly has gleefully crossed it, exposing its docility before the executive. Oversight — the sacred duty of any legislature — has been traded for signage.
Legally, the Assembly may have overreached itself. Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution guarantees the system of local government and vests them with functions under the Fourth Schedule. Among those functions in Paragraph 1(e) of the Fourth Schedule is “naming of roads and streets and numbering of houses.” In plain terms, it is the prerogative of local government councils, not the State Assembly, to rename Douglas Road. What the lawmakers have done is not only unnecessary but arguably unconstitutional. At best, they can make recommendations. At worst, they are usurping powers reserved for another tier of government.
This fits into a growing national pattern. Just as Nyesom Wike in Abuja has made a hobby of renaming projects after President Bola Tinubu, Imo lawmakers have chosen to outdo themselves in sycophancy. When legislatures become praise-singers instead of watchdogs, democracy is mocked and scorned”.
Agu likened what is presently happening in Imo State “to the prevailing pattern at the Federal Capital city, Abuja where the Minister, Nyesom Wike has resorted to naming virtually all projects after President Bola Tinubu.”
“Imo Lawmakers have exhibited unbridled sycophancy. When legislators become praise singers, instead of watchdogs, democracy is scorned.
“Yet history offers Imo a better path. If Douglas must be erased, why not replace him with heroes whose names inspire unity and pride? Why not replace it with names that evoke dignity?
The struggle for good governance is not about street signs but about whether our institutions work for the people.
An Igbo proverb warns: “He who removes an old thorn only to plant a new one has not cured the pain.” Douglas Road may have been an old scar from colonial rule, but the new name will be a fresh bruise that throbs daily in the memory of Imolites. Scars may fade with time; bruises are sharp, immediate, and raw. The Assembly has not healed history; it has deepened the wound”.
