S’Court Ruling on LGAs: FG Mulls Options for Joint Funding of PHCs

•Governors to declare position tomorrow  

•Makinde sets up two committees to review judgement

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja and Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

Following the recent Supreme Court ruling on the financial autonomy for Local Government Areas (LGAs), the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare yesterday, said it was pushing an initiative that would enable both entities at the sub-national levels pull resources to sustain operations of the Primary Health Centres (PHCs).

This comes as for the second time in less than a week, Oyo State Governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, yesterday expressed his opinion on the Supreme Court judgment, declaring that his government would not allow people of the State to suffer from the fallout of the judgment.

The move by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, came just as the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) – the umbrella body for all the 36 state governors said it would make its position known on the matter tomorrow.

Speaking at the Inaugural Quarterly Performance Dialogue with State Commissioners of Health in Abuja, yesterday, Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Mohammed Ali Pate, said the ministry hopes to leverage on an earlier compact agreement signed with the states which ensured that not only federal government but the States are a key part of the National Health System.

He said the National Health Act envisioned a national health system with the federal government leading the States and local governments through the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in the drive to provide better healthcare for Nigerians.

Based on the Act, Pate said all State Governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) had signed a compact with the federal government on December 12, 2023, to work collaboratively towards improving population health outcomes for all Nigerians.

With the reality of the Supreme Court judgement, Pate said even local governments would be required to join in signing to the collaborative initiative.

The Minister explained that, “the initiative aligned with the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative and the Sector-Wide Approach that we have adopted.

“It embodies the spirit of cooperative federalism mandated by the National Health Act of 2014, which calls for shared responsibility and collaboration among all health providers across various levels of government, the private sector, and development partners.”

According to Pate, the initiative was not just about cooperation; but also about accountability.

“We have agreed to hold each other accountable, learn together and work together through regular performance dialogues and evaluations.

“This is not an inquiry but a collaborative effort to use data to understand what is working, what is not, and where improvements are needed.

“Even if the initial quality of some data is low, the journey of learning and improvement is what matters,” he said.

Speaking on the agenda of the performance review meeting Pate said: “We discussed with the commissioners the implication of the Supreme Court judgement on local government autonomy. We clarified that this is an evolutionary process, that before 2011, Nigeria had a very fragmented healthcare system.

“And there was a policy approved by the Council on health on the primary health care under one roof, which accelerated the creation of state primary health care agencies, state health insurance agencies on this federal government working with the states.”

The Minister said the National Health Act created a mechanism to the Basic Health Care Provision Fund in 2014, adding that in 2023, process, President Bola Tinubu upscaled that into a sector-wide program to ensure that states are a key part of the National Health System.

He added that local governments by law are also part of National Health System.

“So we are all operating in the context of cooperative federalism where all hands are on the deck and our dividend partners have joined in that we have raised grant resources to provide incentives to the states to contribute their counterparts.

“And with this development, even local governments will be required to step up and will measure each other’s performance and Nigerians should be able to tell which state which local government is doing its part from the federal government,” he said.

Pate, said the report from the review meeting showed improvements in some areas, while others showed data quality deficit.

Also, most of the stakeholders including reports from various states highlighted challenges in the area of data reporting, human resource deficiency, and immunisation shortfalls.

In his remarks, the NGF Health Advisor,  Dr. Ahmad Abdulwahab, said emphasis should be on how to ensure that the country generates quality data to assist in various health sector interventions.

He added while the NGF was encouraging states to constantly carry out quality data assessment, it believes that the best way forward was for the country to ensure data reporting direct from the various health facilities to reduce errors.

On the implications of the Supreme Court ruling reinforcing local government autonomy, Abdulwahab said the Forum has been studying the judgement as it relates to the laws of the land and would make its position known tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Makinde, yesterday declared declaring that his government would not allow the people of the state to suffer from the fallout of the judgment.

He maintained that the judgment has created a constitutional lacuna that would throw up different challenges at the local government level, stating that though he was not opposed to transparency in the councils, the Supreme Court judgment “is not a silver bullet that will wash away Nigeria’s problems.”

Makinde, stated this yesterday, during an Advisory/Consultative Committee Meeting comprising stakeholders in the local government system.

He said he convened the meeting of all relevant stakeholders in the local government system so that they would outline the major challenges at the councils and develop solutions that would ensure a seamless implementation of the process in a way that would ensure Oyo State’s people do not suffer.

According to the governor, his administration knows and has been doing what was right, including conducting two council elections to ensure caretaker committees don’t man the affairs of councils, clearing of backlog of debts owed workers and pensioners at the council level and fixing of infrastructure deficit in the PHCs and the inner roads.

The meeting, held at the Executive Chamber of the Governor’s Office, Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, had in attendance council chairmen, the leaderships of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), as well as representatives of Ministries, Departments and Agencies that have connection with the local government system.

At the end of the meeting, the governor set up two committees saddled with the responsibilities of reviewing the Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy and coming up with recommendations that would ensure that the change does not affect the people of the state negatively.

The governor said, “I called this meeting because I felt that even though we have not seen the Certified True Copy of the judgment of the Supreme Court, we have to be proactive and discuss the decision of the Supreme Court as it concerns financial autonomy of the local government councils because I believe a lacuna has been created between the decision and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that we all swore to uphold.

“The law is the law and when there is a conflict, yes, we should go to the court. But it behooves on us to look for our own homegrown solutions that can ensure that we have transparency and that our people do not suffer. This is because when two elephants are fighting it is the grass that will suffer.”

Makinde noted that his administration inherited a local government system that owed a backlog of salaries, gratuities and pensions.

He added, “I am saying this because Oyo State will get out of this even stronger. We are people that know what is good for our people.

“Before we came in, leave bonuses were last paid in 2017 and we have paid for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. The Primary Health Care facilities, inner roads were all in bad shape. But we have been working collaboratively with the LGs to deliver dividends of democracy to our people.

“We were able to clear those salary arrears. We paid N18 billion in pension and gratuities over this period. We upgraded about 209 PHCs, equipped about 264, and completed 60 model schools. We constructed and renovated hundreds of primary school classrooms and fixed some of our roads.

“But there are still challenges that we have to address. We still have a backlog of gratuities and pensions. The local governments owe about N55 billion in pension and gratuities. We are developing infrastructure that would push the economy and raise the living standard of their people and push their economy towards sustainable goals.”

The state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Hon. Ademola Ojo, while briefing journalists shortly after the closed door meeting, stated that the two committees set up by the governor were given a frame time of four to six weeks to come up with the homegrown approach to addressing the lacuna created by the Supreme Court judgment.

Also speaking, the State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Biodun Aikomo, said the governor took a proactive step by setting up the committees, as, according to him, the step would help address the crisis that might arise as a result of the judgment.

He added that the governor has shown that he was committed to the welfare of Oyo State people and the development of the state.

The meeting also had in attendance the Deputy Governor, Bayo Lawal; Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly, Adebo Ogundoyin; Chairman, House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Olajide Akintunde and other government functionaries.