THE Supreme Court of Nigeria has granted the nation’s 774 Local Governments Areas (LGAs) financial autonomy in a judgment passed on Thursday, July 11.
The judgement, read by Justice of the Supreme Court, Emmanuel Agim, held that funds meant for LGAs be paid directly into their accounts.
The court also ruled that it was unconstitutional for the state government to hold on to or manage such allocations and directed the 774 LGAs to commence managing their funds.
The judgment was passed in a suit filed by the Federal Government through the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) Lateef Fagbemi against the 36 state governors in the counftry, seeking full autonomy for local governments.
The Federal Government sought the court to authorise the direct transfer of funds from the federation account to local governments in line with the provisions of the Constitution against the alleged unlawful joint accounts created by governors.
Fagbemi also requested an injunction to prevent the governors, their agents, and associates from receiving, spending, or interfering with funds disbursed from the federation account meant for the benefit of local governments.
He further sought an order to prohibit governors from establishing caretaker committees to manage local government affairs, noting that the action contradicts the constitutionally recognised and guaranteed democratic system.
He argued that the interference of state governors in the affairs of a democratically elected local government system undermined the 1999 Constitution.
The suit partly read “That all efforts to make the governors comply with the dictates of the 1999 Constitution in terms of putting in place a democratically elected local government system has not yielded any result and that to continue to disburse funds from the Federation Account to governors for non existing democratically elected local government is to undermine the sanctity of the 1999 Constitution.
“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 is in place.”
Calls for local government autonomy in Nigeria have increased in recent years, as interference by the state has been identified as a reason for its underperformance.
Former president Muhammadu Buhari had signed an Executive Order in May 2020, to grant financial autonomy to the judiciary, legislature, and local government councils.
Buhari also attributed the lack of development at the third tier of government to the governors’ questionable actions on LGA funds.
Although the governors were opposed to Fagbemi’s institution of the case, Agim held that the federal government was right in filing the suit to protect the Constitution.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.