The Supreme Court gave the nation’s 774 local governments complete financial autonomy on Thursday, shocking the 36 state governors.
The seven-member panel unanimously prohibited state governors from appointing caretaker committees to run local governments.
Additionally, the panel ruled that the governors’ continued receipt or retention of cash allotted to local councils under the State and Local Government Joint Account was unlawful and unconstitutional.
The suit SC/CV/343/2024, brought by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) against the 36 state governors, resulted in a historic ruling from the court.
Via each state attorney general, the AGF has filed a lawsuit against the state governors.
This development has terminated the governor’s authority over the distribution of the 774 councils.
Based on an examination of the National Bureau of Statistics’ monthly distribution record, the Local Government Areas (LGAs) received N2.6 trillion in allocations from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee from January to December of 2023.
Additionally, N1.42 trillion was given to local governments in the first half of 2024.
Additionally, the council allotment may be withheld in a few places where local government representatives are not elected.
The LGAs of the states of Rivers, Ondo, Osun, and Plateau are overseen by caretaker committees.
The AGF asked the court to authorise the direct distribution of monies to the local governments from the federation account in the first summons.
Additionally, he requested an order that forbade the unjustifiable dissolution of local government administration and the designation of caretaker committees by state governors to administer the councils.
The case of AGF
The Nigerian constitution recognises federal, state, and local government as the three tiers of government, which was one of the 27 reasons on which the complaint was based.
The governors were all against the lawsuit. They implored the Supreme Court to dismiss the case on the grounds of egregious incompetence.
They argued that the AGF did not have the legal standing to bring the local governments’ lawsuit.
The court further ruled that a local government council may only be recognised in conjunction with a democratically elected government and that a state administration lacks the authority to form a caretaker committee.
State governors no longer appointed caretaker committees to administer the councils; the Supreme Court decided that “a democratically elected local government is sacrosanct and non-negotiable.”
The court determined that the state government’s deployment of a caretaker committee to run the local government was unconstitutional under the 1999 Constitution.
The Supreme Court went on to rule that although democratically elected governments ought to run the LGAs, “the states, by the abuse of their power, have worked against this law.”
The court ruled that the 36 state governors lacked the authority to dissolve locally elected councils and install caretaker committees in their stead.
Agim declared, “Such an act is unlawful, unconstitutional, null, and void.”
The state governors were prohibited by the Supreme Court from accepting, holding onto, or using the local government allotment.
It claimed that the state’s long-standing practice of accepting and holding onto local government revenues had violated Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, and that the practice should be discontinued.
The court decided that any funds that leave the federation account have to be allocated to the three levels of government under the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
source: Punch