LG Autonomy:  Battle shifts to States  

The battle for local government financial autonomy has began with the federal government on Thursday  setting up a 10-man coommittee  to implement the supreme court judgement which restored financial and administrative autonomy to the 774 local government areas in  Nigeria

It will be recalled that the supreme Court on July 11, 2024, delivered a landmark judgement that granted full financial and administrative autonomy to the local government areas

The court similarly directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Accountant General of the Federal to withold monthly allocations for local government areas that are currently being administered by governors’ appointees without a democratically elected leadership

The directives has however sparked off the rush in the conduct of local government area election by the state governors with over 28 states who have rushed to conduct elections

The elections have however attracted reactions from stakeholders including the federal government, following the alleged undemocratic conduct of the governors and the various State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) who only ratify their preferred candidates of the governors at the elections

Reacting to the rush and undemocratic way the governors and their SIECs have conducted the various local government area elections, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, has declared that the federal government did not give state governments a moratorium in the implementation of the Supreme Court judgement on full financial autonomy of the local government areas.

The AGF explained that there is a delay in the full implementation of the apex court verdict due to the measures being put in place by the federal government towards achieving a successful implementation.

Fagbemi spoke  recently while addressing newsmen after he was honoured with an honorary degree during the 12th convocation ceremony and 15th Founder’s Day Event of the Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD).

According to him, there is no going back in the implementation of the judgement for the 774 local government areas to be given financial autonomy in order to ensure development at the grassroots level.

He warned states not to commit contempt of court by disobeying the verdict of the Supreme Court, adding that the administration of President Bola Tinubu was determined to ensure all duly constituted and elected local government administrators received their allocations directly from the federation account.

Fagbemi said, “Unfortunately, I know it has been in the media that they gave them (the governors) a three-month moratorium, which is not the position. The position is that yes, the judgement was delivered, but we felt that there is a need to put some things in place before the full implementation. That it is going to be implemented is sacrosanct; nobody can run away from it.

“The question is, there are some things we need to put in place such that we will not run into problems when we start the full implementation of the judgement of the Supreme Court. There is no moratorium; moratorium for what? You know that before now some states have slated their local government elections for beyond October.

“What we want to look at is: are they genuine when they said they are fixing the election beyond October? When did they first moot the idea? What is the law of their state, however imperfect it may be?

“What does the law of the state say? For instance, in the conduct of elections in some states, they will give 6 months’ notice. If they don’t do that, we know that no matter the kind of election you conduct, the court will nullify it. If we now say we just want to go the whole way out, then there will be a problem.

“We don’t want to go back to square one; that is why we are treading cautiously; otherwise, I am saying categorically that there is no moratorium for anybody. I know that one or two states are trying to commit contempt of court. I won’t comment until they actually do the enactment to see where it takes us and where we are going. Are they going to rewrite the judgement of the Supreme Court? When we get the full tenure of their law, we will take appropriate action.”

Ensuring that the supreme court ruling is fully implemented, the federal government on Thursday, inaugurated a 10-Man  Inter-Ministerial Committee to enforce Supreme Court Judgement On Local Governments Autonomy

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, inaugurated the  Committee

According to a statement by Segun Imohiosen, Director, Information and Public Relations, office of the SGF, the committee’s primary goal is to ensure that local governments are granted full autonomy, allowing them to function effectively without interference from state governments.

The statement noted that the move is in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, @officialABAT, adding that it was part of the president’s efforts to give appropriate implementation to the provisions of the Constitution, which recognizes local governments as the third tier of government.

It listed the members of the committee to include Secretary to the Government of the Federation ad- Chairman, Hon. Minister of Finance & Coordinating Minister of the Economy -Member, Attorney General of the Federation & Minister of Justice – Member, Hon. Minister of Budget & Economic Planning

Others include Accountant General of the Federation, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Permanent Secretary (Federal Ministry of Finance), Chairman, Revenue Mobilization Allocation & Fiscal Commission, ras well as representative of State Governors, and representative of Local Governments