July 14, (THEWILL) – Moments after news broke last Thursday that the Supreme Court had in a landmark ruling granted financial freedom and full administrative autonomy to local government areas in the country, several news outlets sought to interview a former Chairman of Ijebu-East Local Government Area of Ogun State, Wale Adedayo.
As LG chairman, until he had to resign under a cloud in August 2023, Mr Adedayo had publicly alleged that he received zero allocation from the State-Local Government Joint Account since 2021 and therefore could not execute campaign promises in the local government area.
The allegation, detailed in a letter to a former governor of the state, Segun Osoba and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, set him on a collision course with the Governor Dapo Abiodun-led government, which denied the allegation and then petitioned the police. The latter initiated a criminal trial in court against Adedayo for, according to the petition, “deliberate circulation of falsehood, false report to government, threat to life and interference with the exercise of executive function.” Incidentally, the case came up for hearing at the Abeokuta Chief Magistrate Court on Friday, July 12, 2024.
But the picture Adedayo painted in his allegation is familiar to discerning Nigerians, not the least former Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Okonjo Iweala, who felt that an official way to handle the problem was to invite public scrutiny by publishing allocations from the Federation Account to the states and local government councils in select national newspapers monthly, but to no avail. The immediate past President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, signed an Executive Order in May 2020 granting local government areas financial autonomy until state governors swooped on him at the Presidential Villa and he gave up. Constitutional moves also failed to do the trick. In March 2022, when the ninth National Assembly forwarded 44 constitutional amendment bills to state Houses of Assembly for concurrence 35 of the bills were amended with notable exclusion of financial and administrative autonomy for local government councils.
That is why Adedayo thinks the recent apex court ruling may be the wand local government councils had been waiting for to make the desired impact in administration at the grassroots.
“The current federal administration headed by President Bola Tinubu appears ready to deepen the practice of democracy in Nigeria. Nigeria can never develop without an effective system of local government administration. And one of the reasons for the success of any government is availability of funds. Once these funds go directly to each local government, you will be amazed at the number of quality persons vying for positions at the local government level. That will ensure that the rat race to get into state or federal positions will reduce. More eyes will be focused on happenings at both the state and local governments levels,” he told THEWILL in a brief interview on Thursday, after hurrying between television stations on that day to share his past experiences.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, CNPP, James Edema swore to THEWILL in his interview that “virtually all governors are tampering with the State-Local Government Joint Account. I am in the field, so I know what I am saying. The local government councils are just appendages of the state governors. This ruling will in the long run change things for good.”
Also, Professor of Developmental Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Okey Ibeanu told this newspaper on Friday that the apex court ruling, “Is a star judgement. It is good for democracy.”
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S IMPACT
THEWILL recalls that before the Federal Government decided to take the matter up at the Supreme Court after such moves by Iweala and Buhari failed to turn the table on the governors, the apex court had made a similar ruling in the past which also failed to make the desired impact.
In 2019, the apex court again ruled that local government areas without elected officials should not receive federal allocation. The ruling was a follow-up to a previous one in 2014 in which the court held that state governors lack the powers to sack elected council officials, both of which it reaffirmed in Section 7 (1) of the Constitution, which declares: “The system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is under this Constitution; and accordingly, the Government of every State shall, subject to section 8 of this Constitution, ensure their existence under a Law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils…”
Yet as of last Thursday’s final judgement by the Supreme Court, 21 states have been systematically violating this provision of the Constitution. They are Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Plateau, Abia, Enugu, Imo, Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Yobe, Ondo, Osun, Delta, Akwa-Ibom, and Cross River. Others are Rivers, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kwara. Delta fixed its election for Saturday, July 11, 2024. Benue, which earlier chose July 6, 2024, has moved it to November.
For these renegade states, the excuses are insecurity, finance, political and legal battles with perceived or real rivals. While states in violence prone geopolitical zones like the North-East and North-West can be excused on the ground of insecurity, even though Adamawa in the North-East runs an elected local government system, just as five out of seven states in the insurgency-racked North-West, namely, Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina and Kebbi (except Zamfara and Sokoto), have elected LGAs, many other defaulting states scattered across the other four geo-political zones are playing politics with the issue.
This patent violation of these rulings by state governors compelled the Federal Government through the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, to file a suit marked SC/CV/343/2024, on May 20, 2024.
Seeking full autonomy for the 774 local government areas in Nigeria, the AGF prayed the apex court for an order of injunction restraining the governors, their agents and privies from receiving, spending or tampering with funds released from the Federation Account for the benefit of local government areas when no democratically elected local government system is put in place in the states.
The AGF prayed the court for an order permitting the funds standing in the credits of local governments to be directly channelled to them from the federation account, in line with the provisions of the Constitution.
The Federal Government further prayed for an order restraining governors from constituting caretaker committees to run the affairs of LGAs as against the Constitutionally recognised and guaranteed democratic system.
It also prayed the court for an order restraining the state governors from unilateral, arbitrary, and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected officials of local governments.
THE SUPREME COURT RULING
A seven-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, declared as unconstitutional the state governors’ penchant for holding funds meant for local government administrations. It declared the act a clear violation of Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
According to Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgement, 36 state governors of the federation are barred from further retaining or utilising funds that are meant for the 774 Local Government Areas in the country.
Justice Agim held that no House of Assembly of any state has the power to make laws that could, in any manner, interfere with monies meant for the LGAs.
“Demands of justice require a progressive interpretation of the law. It is the position of this court that the federation can pay allocations to the LGAs directly or pay them through the states. In this case, since paying them through states has not worked, justice of this case demands that LGA allocations from the federation account should henceforth be paid directly to the LGAs,” the Supreme Court ruled.
The court further declared as unconstitutional the appointment of caretaker committees by governors to run the affairs of the LGAs. It dismissed the preliminary objection by the state governors, contending the right of the Attorney- General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, to file the suit.
The court invoked sections 1, 4, 5, 7 and 14 of the Constitution to declare that the 36 state governors and the State Houses of Assembly are under obligation to ensure a democratic system at the third tier of government in Nigeria and to also invoke the same sections to hold that the governors cannot lawfully dissolve democratically elected local government councils.
They argued that “Nigeria, as a federation, was a creation of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, with the President, as Head of the Federal Executive Arm, swearing on oath to uphold and give effect to provisions of the Constitution.
Furthermore, they declared that the Nigerian Constitution recognises federal, state and local governments as three tiers of government and that the three recognised tiers of government are democratically elected and so can draw funds for their operation and functioning from the Federation Account created by the Constitution.
Reiterating that to put in place a non-existing democratically elected local government is to undermine the sanctity of the 1999 Constitution, they submitted that in the face of the violations of the 1999 Constitution, the Federal Government is not obligated under section 162 of the Constitution to pay any state funds standing to the credit of local governments where no democratically elected local government council is in place.
However, in separate preliminary objections filed before the apex court, the states sought the dismissal of the suit with substantial cost.
They contended that the AGF, who initiated the action on behalf of the Federal Government, lacked the locus standi (legal right) to do so and further alleged that the AGF breached their right to a fair hearing when he failed to serve them with a copy of a further affidavit he filed in support of the suit.
REACTIONS
The Nigeria Governors Forum, whose members seem to be at the receiving end since the judgement, said through its Chairman, Governor AbdulRahaman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State, that it will meet on Wednesday to make its position on the ruling known.
In the meantime, AbdulRazaq in Abuja on Friday in the company of his Bauchi and Imo State counterparts, Bala Mohammed and Hope Uzodimma, said the states’ Attorney-Generals would apply for the judgment and study it carefully, but in the interim, the governors “Are happy with the devolution of power, with respect to local government autonomy, It relieves the burden on governors. Our people really don’t know how much states expand in bailing out local government councils and that’s the issue there.”
An elated President Tinubu said, “My administration instituted this suit because of our unwavering belief that our people must have relief. 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.”
A strident view came from ex-Governor James Ibori of Delta state, who stated on his X platform last Thursday that the court’s ruling on “the matter is an assault on true federalism. The Federal Government has no right to interfere with the administration of local governments under any guise whatsoever. There are only two tiers of government in a federal system of government.”
Citing sections 163 (3) , which states that it is the National Assembly that shall prescribe the terms on how money in the federation account shall be distributed among the three tiers of government and section 6, which provides for State Joint Local Government Account, he added: “It is my sincere hope that the judgement delivered today will be reviewed at the earliest time possible because it stands the concept of federalism on its head.”
Professor Ibeanu doubts that what is at stake in the matter is the federal principle. He said that the Local government areas are under states under the law and not in a vacuum and that the law is the Constitution. He said, “Section 162 provides for two ways to transfer money to LG. The State Joint Local Government Account is not working properly because the money is being diverted and the court stated that this has to be redressed, which is the second way.”
Two Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Femi Falana and Mike Ozekhome think that the ruling is a giant leap forward for democratic governance in Nigeria.
Ozekhome said, “The judgement of the court is clear. If you want to receive funds from the Federation Account, then conduct an election. If what you have in place is a caretaker committee as local government chairman, be sure that it will not have money from the Federation Account. If you want money from the Federation Account, such councils must be democratically elected.
“Now, local governments would be expected to fix some schools, tar some roads, and even pay some workers. So, it is not that state governments will no longer participate in the affairs of the local governments, the state governments should create state economic councils and allow the local government to participate in them, just like they are part of the federal economic council,” said Falana, adding that, “The judgment has to be studied by the governors so that everybody will appreciate that what the Supreme Court has done is to promote public accountability at the grassroots levels.”
WAY FORWARD
Prof Obienu called on the Federal Government to ensure that a clear principle is worked out for the disbursement of the allocation so that all local government councils know what is coming to them as all are not of the same size nor with the same responsibility.
He said, “While this judgment is a huge positive milestone in Nigeria’s democratic development, its value will be completely lost if State Independent Electoral Commissions, SIECs, are not also “rescued” from state governors. SIECs are now their only remaining route to perpetuating the illegalities that the Supreme Court dealt with on Thursday. In the least, funding of SIECs must be charged to the Federation Account and released directly to them. The public must be involved in screening nominees by providing character references and the power of SIECs to hire and fire staff must be guaranteed.”
CNPP’s Edema calls for security agencies, Community based organisations and stakeholders to get involved in closely monitoring activities in the Local Governments henceforth. He dismissed the fear that the federal government would now be able to interfere in the affairs of the local governments, arguing that just as there were checks and balances at the federal and states, so too were there in the councils, which also have its legislative arms and make budgetary allocations.
National President of the Association of Local Governments in Nigeria, ALGON, and Chairman of Lafia Local Government Area in Nasarawa State, Maifata Aminu Mu’azu, summed it up on Friday: “The calibre of local government chairmen and women in Nigeria has improved over the years with two-thirds of them highly educated. With the new law on financial autonomy, all eyes will be on them. They know that unlike the governors, they have no form of immunity.”
Amos Esele is the Acting Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
