The Supreme Court of Nigeria has reached a verdict on the issue of LGA financial autonomy. They have granted all the prayers of the Attorney General of the Federation who dragged all 36 State Governors to the court with prayers that would lead to full financial autonomy, without the interference of the State Governments in their affairs. In essence, the Supreme Court in interpreting Section 162(2) of the constitution changed a mandatory requirement into a probable requirement and then ruled that the probable requirement should become mandatorily unnecessary.
This decision of the Supreme Court is a blow to governors in more ways than one. For starters, Governors like CharlesSoludo of Anambra State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State who support Local Government Autonomy in so far as Governors are allowed to constitute the number of Local Government Areas that will lead to development in their states have received a major setback. The constitution only allows for 774 local government areas in Nigeria. The Governors are not allowed to create more local government areas and now they have no authority over the local government councils within their states.
The reasons given both for and against local government autonomy boils down to power. Who wields power over the people. Where will the loyalty of the people go? Understandably, the Federal Government wants to checkmate the powers of State Governors. If the saying he who pays the piper calls the tune holds true, then the loyalty of Local Government Chairmen will now go to the party at the centre. In a country like Nigeria where elections are becoming less the will of the people and more the will of the highest bidder,what this means is that State Governors will have even less role to play in determining who wins elections in their states. What this means is that the Federal Government can destabilise the state electoral process.
The President Bola Tinubu led administration is already moving for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to startconducting local government elections.
While the focus of everyone is one how the federal allocation are shared, Governor Seyi Makinde has made it clear that his focus is on how the local authorities can be used to create further economic prosperity for the people.
In a recent interview, he said, “I am in full support of that tier of government, but what we have at this point is fraudulent. Why will you have 774 local government areas stipulated in the constitution of Nigeria…We are only talking about federal allocation; how about baking a bigger cake so that we can do more even at the level of government for our people?”
Using Oyo State as case study, the Local Governments receive an allocation of about N7 billion from the federal allocation. First line charges on this account is about N5.3 billion for salaries. Governor Makinde’s oversight has ensured that all LGA workers are paid their salaries along with State Civil servants on the 25th of every month. What will happen to Local government workers now that the oversight has been removed. The next few months will tell.
Also, the local government investment of 10 million for security will be left to the discretion of Local Government Chairmen. Each local government will be left with about 50 million monthly for whatever development they want to carry out. In Nigeria’s present economy, one kilometre of roads cost N400m to 1 billion based on world bank estimates. How long will it take a local government to construct one kilometre of road, let alone 10 kilometres as constructed by Ido Local Government in Oyo State?
The facts remain that politically expedient judgements have been rendered. In truth, States that remove Local Government Chairman arbitrarily and replace them with caretaker committees should be sanctioned. But the solution is not to create more hardships for the people by introducing friction between State Governors and Local Government Chairmen. The solution lies in true federalism. Nigeria copied its federal system from the United States. There is a reason states are granted the powers to create as many councils as are required for optimal development.