What’s Impeding LG Autonomy?

Ten months after the Supreme Court delivered judgment in the suit filed by the federal government to enforce local government autonomy, it is yet to implement the verdict, raising questions on the motive behind the hurriedly instituted suit, Davidson Iriekpen writes

The wild jubilation that greeted the July 11, 2024, Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy has since died down, leaving those who rejoiced befuddled by what is currently happening.

Recall that in a move that took state governors by surprise, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), had filed a suit at the Supreme Court on behalf of the federal government and the 774 local governments, praying the court to grant full autonomy and direct funding to local councils from their share of the federation account.

Widely regarded as a landmark ruling that would rescue local government councils from their rapacious state governors, the Supreme Court had after an expedited hearing, granted the prayers, ordering that the allocations meant for local governments be paid directly to them.

It further declared the practice of state governments retaining local government funds as unconstitutional.

The judgment, carried out by a seven-man panel of the court led by Justice Emmanuel Agim, also held that Nigeria has three arms of government – the federal, the state, and local government.

According to the court, no state government has the power to appoint a caretaker committee because a local government council is only recognisable with a democratically-elected government.

 “A democratically elected local government is sacrosanct and non-negotiable,” the court said, adding that the use of a caretaker committee amounted to a violation of the 1999 Constitution.

The court further held that the state governments have been perpetuating a dangerous trend through their refusal to allow democratically-elected local government councils in their states or through the appointment and removal of caretaker councils.

It, consequently, ordered an “immediate compliance” with the judgment.

Immediately the verdict was delivered, Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) went into jubilation, declaring that freedom had come to the local governments at last.

Many other Nigerians, including opposition politicians also hailed the judgment.

President Bola Tinubu was also lauded by many for initiating the move to ensure democratic governance in the local councils.

About a month after the Supreme Court judgment, the federal government announced through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, inaugurated an Inter-Ministerial Committee to enforce the verdict.

A statement by the Director, Information and Public Relations to the SGF, Segun Imohiosen, named members of the committee to include the SGF himself as Chairman, with other members as the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy; Attorney General of the Federation; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning; Accountant General of the Federation; Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria; Permanent Secretary (Federal Ministry of Finance); Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation & Fiscal Commission (RMAFC); representative of state governors and representative of local governments.

The committee met for months, and its undisclosed report was further handed over to a review panel, which also submitted a report.

It is, however, surprising that months after the apex court’s judgment for immediate implementation, the verdict has not been enforced.

State governments that were initially jittery that their grip on local government allocations was about to be loosened with the direct payment of local government funds to the councils have since relaxed and continued their control of the funds as usual.

So, what really could be preventing the federal government and the CBN from implementing the direct payment granted to the councils by the Supreme Court?

Checks revealed that the implementation of the order of the apex court would encounter two genuine challenges, which the state governors would raise at the 10-man meeting.

One is the question of payment of primary school teachers, which is domiciled in the local governments and the payment of workers at the primary healthcare centres, another responsibility of the councils.

 However, the first attempt to delay the implementation of the judgment was the three-month moratorium granted to governors by the federal government in August 2024.

The federal government and state governors had agreed to the moratorium over concerns regarding its impact on salary payments, operational viability, and the conduct of local government elections, among other issues.

As a result, direct payment of allocations to local governments was scheduled to commence in October 2024. In anticipation of the deadline, many states hurriedly conducted local government elections, with ruling parties in those states winning most of the contests.

But in an attempt to frustrate local government financial autonomy, some governors moved to enact laws requiring local government councils in their states to remit allocations into a joint account.

The controversy surrounding the implementation deepened when the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation stated that it was not directly responsible for enforcing the judgment.

According to the AGF, the responsibility for implementing the ruling and ensuring direct allocation to local governments falls under the purview of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

It is not clear if the AGF gave a written directive to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to that effect.

But in what many saw as another move to delay the implementation, the CBN later introduced a new condition requiring all 774 local governments to provide at least two years of audited financial reports before they could receive their allocations directly.

The apex bank insisted that the local governments must meet this requirement before opening accounts for direct remittance of their allocations.

The condition raised concerns among local government officials and legal experts, who argued that it serves as yet another bureaucratic hurdle to delay the implementation of financial autonomy.

Amid the controversy, some governors allegedly resorted to intimidation and mounting pressure on their local government chairmen not to open the designated accounts to receive direct allocation.

A number of governors are said to be strongly opposed to the opening of CBN accounts, as it would deny them their long-standing access to local government funds.

As a result, they allegedly instructed some council chairmen not to open accounts with the apex bank.

Last week, ALGON accused Fagbemi of frustrating the implementation of local government autonomy.

Speaking ahead of the hearing on a suit filed against the AGF and other members of the implementation committee at the Federal High Court in Abuja, ALGON Secretary General, Muhammed Abubakar, said the AGF’s directive for the CBN to open uniform accounts for all local governments undermines the spirit of the court’s decision.

With all these bottlenecks, one wonders why the federal government instituted the suit and if the judgment will ever be implemented.