Abba Hamisu Sani
Africa-Press – Nigeria. Local government is the third tier of government that is domesticated at the grassroots level outside the state and Federal governments.
LGs are established to ensure effective governance at the local level. Nigeria’s Federal system envisages autonomy for every level of government.
Local government affairs especially financial status of the 774 LG’s in Nigeria is evidently dominated by the state governments under governors ,this crippled the activities of the grass root government as the powers of Local government chairmen as leaders is not effective which makes them unable to ensure the provision of quality infrastructure and development projects, It is the ability to initiate, implement, and execute projects at localities according to the constitutional provisions. All these are attributed to the state government’s dominance in the affairs of LGAs.
The recent Tinubu’s Government move to ensure Local governments autonomy.
Several attempts have been made to achieve the implementation of Laval governments autonomy but unsuccessful due to state governors interest in controlling the financial and political affairs of the third tier of government, but this time Tinubu’s administration have resorted to seek court interventions.
The Federal government has taken legal action against the Governors of the all 36 states at the Supreme Court ,alleging miss conduct in their handling of local Government Areas.
Filed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice ,Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN ,the suit marked SC/CV/343/2024 ,seeks complete autonomy for LGAs as the third tier of government.
The government requests an order to prevent governors from unilaterally dissolving democratically elected local government leaders and to ensure that funds allocated to them are directly channeled to them from the Federation Account ,bypassing the joint accounts created by governors
Additionally, the Federal Government seeks to halt the appointment of Caretaker Committees to oversee Local Government Areas, and insist on the establishment of democratically elected local government systems as prescribed by the Constitution.
The suit seeks to address the governor’s refusal to adhere to the Constitution
The suit argues that the governor’s failure to adhere to constitutional provisions regarding local government governance undermines the sanctity of the 1999 constitution.
The affidavits filed by the Federal Ministry of Justice assert the necessity of the lawsuit under the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction.
The Federal Government plans to present various online publications as one of the fences of national importance and public interests in granting autonomy to Local Government Areas.
Abdurrahman Kawu Sumaila is the Senator representing Kano South Senatorial District under the opposition New Nigeria People’s Party -NNPP. He commended President Ahmed Bola Tinubu over his recent move to compel the 36 States of the federation to give Autonomy to the Local Governments.
Sumaila stated this in a statement he personally signed and distributed to newsmen.
The Senator commended the president’s decision which he described as timely, according to him, the Nigerian masses are in dire need of policies that would alleviate their sufferings.
He said Tinubu deserved commendation as the decision he took to ensure local government autonomy was in line with the stand of the senators in their efforts to salvage the grassroots from the hardships they were facing.
“I am happy, Mr. President has begun to toe the path to salvage our people by giving the local governments autonomy to operate as enshrined in the constitution. The decision to compel the 36 states of the federation to give autonomy to local governments is a step in the right direction.
This will surely help in bringing development to our people, particularly the grassroots in the rural areas. It will equally boost the nation’s economy by increasing our Internally Generated Revenue through the agricultural value chain and other commercial activities that will come up after the local governments get their autonomy, ” the lawmaker said.
The need for the President to visit the issue of LGA Election
The Kano South Senator, however, appealed to President Tinubu to also look into the problem of local government election, as according to him, it is another problem affecting the progress of the grassroots under democratic governance.
“I would be glad if President Tinubu would also address challenges affecting the conduct of local government elections in the nation. The president should do something to stop politicians from messing up with processes of local government elections for their own interests.
We are all aware of how local government elections are being conducted under the watch of state governors in this country. From the primary to the main election, the processes are always being manipulated by politicians for their interests as against the interests of the majority.
That should not be so under democracy and I am appealing to Mr President to also do something urgently to address this problem. I am sure this will complement the autonomy of the local government, thereby paving the way for extending dividends of democracy to the grassroots,” he said.
Senator Sumaila affirmed that the Legislative and executive arms of government have done their part, saying it is now left for the judiciary to appropriately exercise its constitutional rights in deciding in the case before it on the local government autonomy.
“We, at the National Assembly have raised the matter, supported the autonomy for local government and the executive has also reasoned with us. It is now over to the judiciary to make its stand.
“I thanked the Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio, and Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin for allowing me to table the matter before the Senate and also my colleagues for supporting me on this issue,” Sumaila added.
The Civil Society also commend Tinubu for the giant move
Ambassador Ibrahim Waiya is the Executive Director of Citizen for Development and Education and the chairman of the Conference of the Northern States Civil Society Network. He expressed delight over the Federal government’s decision to take the 36 states to the Supreme Court on the issue of local government autonomy.
“What the Federal Government did is a welcome development, we appreciate that and we welcome the idea of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice , we like that and we support him for that and we commend him for his courage to do that.
It is high time as we have for long advocated for the autonomy of Local governments, this has been part of the agitation we have been making for a long,(for years), even in the last constitutional review which we participated fully from Kano down to Abuja, we advocated so much for it”s one of the items that we so much call for ,there need for local governments to have full financial and administrative autonomy, because we believe that is the best way to facilitate development from the grassroots.
Nigeria is practicing Federalism, Federalism means a system of government, where there is going to be a Central government and other federating units, and as far as Nigeria is concerned, we have a Central government which is a Federal Government, we have a sub-national government
which are states and Local governments, the two layers of; Federal and states enjoy their financial autonomy by getting their money directly from the Federation Account independently without interference from any other layer, so why the local governments.?
The civil society activist added that by what is happening now in Nigeria the essence of establishing Local governments is defeated.
He urged all Nigerians to support the Federal government’s effort to make local governments independent.
To end this piece is to hope for the speedy judgment from the Supreme Court which , if Federal government prayers are granted, will end the greediness of state governors on the Federal allocations received by the LGAs through joint Accounts.
For instance, in states like Kano it has been the practice for years that state government executed projects such as flyovers and underpasses at the state capital which only has eight local governments area with the money from the joint Account which belongs to 44 local government areas while the remaining 36 LGAs lack the basic amenities.
At the same time if the Federal government is succeed ,it will end the issue of state governors appointment of caretaker committees to handle local governments affairs instead of elected officials.
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