Can FG Rescue LGs from Governors’ Stranglehold?

Despite state governors’ refusal to comply with previous Supreme Court rulings aimed at rescuing the local government system from their control, the federal government has again filed a suit seeking enforcement of full autonomy for local governments, Alex Enumah reports

In an attempt to secure the local governments from the stranglehold of the state governors, the federal government has filed a suit at the Supreme Court to seek the enforcement of their full autonomy.

Local government is the closest arm of government to the people and is mandated to take development to the people at the grassroots.

However, efficient governance at the level of the third tier of government has been hampered by the overbearing influence of state governors. Funds meant for local governments in the Federation Account are paid monthly to them through their respective state governments.

In the suit marked: SC/CV/343/2024, filed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, (SAN), the federal government is seeking full autonomy for all LGAs in the country as the third tier of government.

It specifically prayed the apex court to issue an order, prohibiting state governors from embarking on unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders, as well as 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 as against the alleged unlawful joint accounts created by governors.

In the suit where the governors were sued through their respective attorneys-general, the federal government is praying the apex court for an order, stopping the governors from further constituting caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments as against the constitutionally recognised and guaranteed democratic system.

In the 27 grounds it listed in support of the suit, the federal government 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 effects to provisions of the Constitution.

In a 13-paragraph affidavit that was deposed to by one Kelechi Ohaeri from the Federal Ministry of Justice, the AGF said he filed the suit under the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, on behalf of the federal government. He averred that the local government system recognised by the Constitution is a democratically elected local government council, which should be paid the allocations meant for the local government.

Since the enthronement of democracy in the country in 1999, the administration of the 774 LGAs in the country has been hijacked by state governments. Governors do not only choose their cronies to administer the local governments, they also dictate how their finances, especially allocations from the Federation Account, should be spent. The practice cuts across political parties with a predominant number of state governments regarding the third tier of government as mere administrative appendages placed under commissioners for local government and chieftaincy matters.

This has caused the third tier of government to lose both financial independence and operational autonomy, rendering them redundant and incapable of providing even basic social services to the grassroots.

All the efforts and attempts to grant autonomy to the local government through constitutional amendment have always been thwarted by governors. Even several courts, including the Supreme Court, had tried to intervene on several occasions on the overbearing attitude of the governors on the local government to no avail. 

Not only are elections not conducted or chairmen and councillors frequently removed at will, sole administrators and caretaker committees are frequently set up to run their affairs all because of their revenue.

In 2022, former President Muhammadu Buhari accused the state governors of pilfering local government funds, adding that this had contributed to the underdevelopment of the system.

“If the monies from the federal government to state governments is N100 million, let’s put it at N100 million — N50 million will be sent to the chairman with a letter that he will sign that he received N100 million,” he said.

To address the challenge of misuse of funds allocated to local councils across the country by state governments through the State Joint Local Government Accounts (SJLGA), the National Assembly had in March 2022 passed a bill abolishing it and providing for a special account where all allocations due to the local councils, from the federation account and state government, shall be paid.

In the bill, each local council was to create and maintain its own special account to be called the Local Government Allocation Account into which all the allocations will be paid.

The legislation also mandated each state to pay to local government councils in its area of jurisdiction such proportion of its internally generated revenue on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the House of Assembly.

However, since the bill seeks to amend a constitutional provision, it had to receive the approval of at least 24 state Houses of Assembly, which was not possible due to the governors’ objection.

Even the move by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to abolish the states’ local governments’ joint accounts through which governors exercised absolute control over local governments’ funds was resisted. The NFIU placed a limit on cash withdrawals from local governments accounts to a maximum of N500,000 per day. It warned banks to ensure strict compliance.

Dissatisfied with the development, the 36 state governors, through their Attorneys-General and Commissioners for Justice, challenged the decision at the Federal High Court, arguing that it contradicted Sections 7(1), (6) (a) and (b) of the 1999 Constitution and did not conflict with the provision of Section 162(6).

In his judgment, Justice Inyang Ekwo threw out the suit, saying that there was nothing wrong with the NFIU directive. The judgment did not still stop state governors from tampering with their statutory allocations of local governments nor did it dissuade the governors from tampering with the funds.

It was against the background that last December, the Senate asked the federal government to stop the allocation of funds to local governments run by caretaker committees.

When the case came up for hearing last Thursday, a seven-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Garba Lawal, ordered the governors, who were represented by the state attorneys-general, to file their respective defences to the originating summons within seven days.  It adjourned the suit to June 13 for hearing

How far the federal government would go with the suit when the Supreme Court delivers judgment in its favour, remains to be seen.