Tension In 21 States Following The Supreme Court Judgement On LG Autonomy

There is panic in at least 21 states of the federation following the Supreme Court judgement which stopped allocation to non-democratically elected local government chairmen.

DAILY POST reported that the judgement delivered by the apex court on Thursday gave victory to the third tier of government, bringing to an end years of struggle for local government autonomy.

In the landmark judgment, the Supreme Court endorsed full autonomy for the 774 local governments in the country to put to an end the gross abuse of their affairs by some of the state governors.

It ordered that funds from the federation account in the credit of the councils must be paid directly to their respective bank accounts.

In the same vein, the court barred the governors, and their privies from directly or indirectly receiving, tampering or withholding funds meant for the local governments henceforth.

The lead judgment was delivered by Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim.

The governors were also barred from henceforth dissolving democratically elected officials for local governments and that doing so would amount to a breach of the 1999 Constitution.

In the unanimous judgment of the 7-man panel of Justices, the Supreme Court agreed with the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Olasunkanmi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria SAN that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria recognized local governments as the third tier of government.

The Justices also agreed with him that some state governors have in the past two decades been using Nigeria’s Constitution to perpetrate unconstitutional acts.

The argument of Fagbemi SAN that the Constitution permitted governors to receive money on behalf of local governments but did not permit them to spend such money on their behalf was upheld.

Among others, the apex court ordered the Federation Account to withhold funds of local governments where democratically elected officials are not in place.

Fagbemi had on May 24 this year on behalf of the Federal Government dragged the 36 governors before the Supreme Court over alleged misconduct in the running of affairs of local governments in the country.

The Attorney General instituted the court action against the governors primarily seeking full autonomy for local governments as third tiers of government in the country.

In the suit marked SC/CV/343/2024, the AGF had prayed the Apex Court for an order prohibiting State Governors from unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders for local governments.

The governors, who were sued through their respective State Attorneys General, demanded dismissal of the suit on the ground that the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to adjudicate in the matter and that the suit did not disclose any reasonable cause of action against them.

The request for dismissal was, however, rejected by the Justices for being frivolous, vexatious and lacking in merit.

The suit is predicated on 27 grounds among which are that the Nigeria Federation is a creation of the 1999 Constitution with the President as Head of the Federal Executive arm of the Federation and has sworn to uphold and give effects to the provisions of the Constitution.

Apart from ordering that monthly allocation should be sent directly to the LGs, the Supreme Court also ruled that local government areas being administered by non-democratically elected chairmen should not receive allocation.

With the judgement, several local government areas spread across 21 states would not receive July allocation from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC.

They include Jigawa, Rivers, Anambra, Kwara, Imo, Zamfara, Benue, Bauchi, Plateau, Abia, Enugu, Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Yobe, Ondo, Osun, Delta, Akwa-Ibom, and Cross River.

While some of the states had before now fixed dates for local government polls, some others have no immediate plan to put up democratically elected chairmen.

The development has jolted the governors of the affected states, with Anambra State governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo announcing that the Governors Forum would hold an emergency meeting.

Soludo, who is also guilty of non-conduct of council polls, spoke after a closed door meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House on Thursday.

He, however, praised the court decision saying it was a democratic process which should be commended by all democrats.

“That’s great. I mean, the Supreme Court is Supreme because it is the final authority and am a democrat. I believe in the rule of law. Once the Supreme Court has spoken it has spoken. I understand, I mean, tonight, I think the Governors Forum is meeting to review this.

“We’re yet to even… I mean, I haven’t seen the document myself. I’ve been extremely, very busy all through the day but I’ve seen snippets of it.

“But at a fundamental level, yes, we need resources to get down to the real grassroot and we need the people’s money to work for them at all levels, whether at the federal or the state and the local government.

“We need to promote accountability. We need to promote transparency in the utilization of public resources at all levels, to be able to lift the burden of the common man,” he said.

As of the time of filing this report, the outcome of the governors’ meeting is yet to be made public.

Meanwhile, the development has been attracting diverse reactions from Nigerians across divides.

No more excuses by LGs – Tinubu

For President Bola Tinubu the judgement has reaffirmed the statutory rights of council dwellers.

He further stated that the local government chairmen had no more hindrance towards provision of good governance at the grassroots.

Tinubu said, “The Renewed Hope Agenda is about the people of this country, at all levels, irrespective of faith, tribe, gender, political affiliation, or any other artificial line they say exists between us. This country belongs to all of us.

“By virtue of this judgement, our people – especially the poor – will be able to hold their local leaders to account for their actions and inactions. What is sent to local government accounts will be known, and services must now be provided without excuses.

“My administration instituted this suit because of our unwavering belief that our people must have relief and today’s judgement will ensure that it will be only those local officials elected by the people that will control the resources of the people.

“This judgement stands as a resounding affirmation that we can use legitimate means of redress to restructure our country and restructure our economy to make Nigeria a better place to live in and a fairer society for all of our people”.

“I commend the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) for his diligence and patriotic effort on this important assignment.

“My administration remains committed to protecting the principles of the charter governing citizens, institutions of government, arms, and tiers of government in furtherance of building an efficient and performance-driven governance system that works for every Nigerian.”

The National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, which has been at the forefront of the struggle for local government autonomy, said with the judgement, 50 per cent of the country’s problems had been solved.

Mr Ambali Olatunji, NULGE National President, said over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s problems would be addressed following the judgement.

“We believe that with the local government autonomy judgment, over 50 per cent of Nigerian problems have been fixed.

“Also, we hope there will be financial integrity at the local government levels and all financial transactions will be tracked.

“We will be working with anti-corruption agencies to ensure growth and development.

“So, we are happy and it is a fulfilment of long-awaited dreams and the struggle in the last 15 years has come to a victorious end,” he said.

Atiku- states became notorious in muscling local councils

Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during the 2023 presidential election, while lauding the judgement, said several states became notorious in muscling local councils.

Posting on his X handle on Thursday, he said, “I align with the decision of the Supreme Court that the structure of the Nigerian government is portioned in three layers, and of these, the local governments should be centres of development.

“I also share the belief that fiscal autonomy to the local governments should not be limited to revenues from the Federation Accounts, but indeed, should apply to Internally Generated Revenue from the respective local government authorities.

“Many of our states, especially those in the ultra-urban areas with high-density economic activities, have become notorious in muscling local councils from generating revenue on items that border on motor parks, outdoor advertising, rents and many more.

“The verdict of the court is in tandem with the core functions of the Supreme Court as an arbitration court between and among governments.”

Obey Supreme Court judgement – Akpabio to governors

On his part, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has urged the governors to respect the Supreme Court judgement.

The Senate President, who spoke to State House correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said, “Recall that the request was placed before the courts by the AGF because the Federal Government through President Bola Tinubu feels strongly about separation of powers and the need for autonomy of all arms of governments.

“And so for us in the legislature, the Supreme Court has spoken and we have no option than to abide by the Supreme Court ruling.

“So, I will just call on all states of the federation to respect what the Supreme Court has done and then we will go back to the legislature and see where we can dot the i’s and cross the t’s to ensure the full implementation.

“I advise that there should be an impartial election at the local government level so that all the political parties can participate.

“At the moment there’s a lot of lethargy and nonchalant attitude by many political parties whose parties are not in power at the state level, they hardly partake in local government elections because of the perceived bandwagon effect and all that.”

There’s clear consequence for disobedience to judgement – AGF, Fagbemi

It is a thing of delight for the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi who took the governors to the Supreme Court.

He warned of the dire consequences provided by the Supreme Court should any state disobey the judgement.

Fagbemi was optimistic that the judgement would bring a new lease of life to the local government areas.

“I call it local government emancipation judgement because it has really emancipated the local government from the shackles of the past and I hope that local government officials will look at it as an opportunity to develop their various local governments.

“The ball is in the court of the governors, let us see what they will come out with, but the judgement is clear as to what they should do, the judgement is clear as to what consequences will be attached to failure or refusal to follow the judgement of the Supreme Court, which takes immediate effect.”

Emperor governors violated constitution for 25 years – Ex-VON DG, Okechukwu

For the immediate past Director General of Voice of Nigeria, Mr Osita Okechukwu, the Supreme Court judgment will clearly restore grassroot democracy in Nigeria.

“To me the iconic judgment will, pure and simple, restore grassroot democracy in Nigeria from Emperor-Governors.

“Today the judgment has also restructured our local government system; therefore I call on all to monitor and ensure the prudent management of the 20.6% Federal Revenue Allocation to local government councils.

I commend my Lord Justices of the Supreme and President Tinubu as his perseverance for the autonomy of local government councils has paid off,” he said in a statement made available to DAILY POST.

Okechukwu regretted that “for 25 years our Emperor-Governors have violently breached Section 7 of our Constitution by brazen rigging of local councils elections and by extension mismanagement of the 20.6% local government funds; hence dampened the development of grassroot democracy.”

He noted that President Bola Tinubu has by this judgment restructured our local government system, just as he saluted the Attorney General, Fagbemi, for the excellent suit “which is a signpost for renewal of our hope in grassroot democracy via the temple of justice system.

“All efforts made in the past 25 years to grant financial autonomy to local government councils via the amendment of the constitution were blocked by Emperor-Governors.”

He urged Nigerians from henceforth to rise up and monitor the 20.6% federal allocation to local government councils for prudent use in development of our rural communities.

Judgement defective – Ex-governor Ibori

Meanwhile, in what could be described as a minority opinion, a former Delta State governor, Chief James Ibori, described the judgement as defective.

He saw the Supreme Court decision as an assault on the country’s constitution.

Ibori, who made the declaration in a post on his X handle, said the decision could be seen as a ban on state autonomy.

“If the ruling is saying governors cannot tamper, touch, or fiddle with the joint accounts, that’s fine because they shouldn’t be doing that in the first place, but asking the federal government to pay local governments allocations to the accounts of the local government directly is utter madness.

“I am opposed to fiddling with the allocations to the Joint LG Accounts at the state level but that in itself does not call for this death knell to the clear provisions of Section 162 of the Constitution. The implications of the ruling are far-reaching and the issues that readily come to mind are:

“The Supreme Court has dealt a severe setback to the principle of federalism as defined by Section 162(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

“The section expressly provides thus: ‘Any amount standing to the credit of the federation account shall be distributed among the federal and state governments and the local government councils in each state on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly’.

“Sections 6 provide further clarity on the subject matter: each state shall maintain a special account to be called ‘State Joint Local Government Account,’ into which shall be paid all allocations to the local government councils of the state from the federation account and from the government of the state.”

“That local government must be ‘democratically elected’ goes without saying. Yes, I agree; that’s the position of the Constitution but withholding their allocation is not the way to go. It’s wrong.

“In the coming days, we will begin to fully understand the implications of the Supreme Court decision.

“An assault on the Constitution is not the answer to fiddling with the Joint LG Account.

“Like the Hon. Justice Oputa of blessed memory once said in describing the Supreme Court, “we are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final”, he said.