Nigeria’s Supreme Court has reserved judgment in the suit filed against 36 state governors in the country by the federal government over Local government administration in the country.
Recall that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, on May 26,2024 filed the suit on behalf of the federal government seeking to excise the LGAs from the control of state governors.
Prominent among the reliefs the AGF is seeking from the nation’s apex court, is the local government financial and administrative autonomy.
In the suit, the nation’s number one law officer accused the governors of tampering with funds accruing to the LGAs from the federation account, as well as running local government undemocratically.
Some state governors have however opposed the suit, and have now filed their defenses, after the apex court ordered them to do so.
According to the details of the suit filed by Fagbemi, the Federal is also praying the Supreme Court for an order stopping governors from further constituting caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments as against the constitutionally recognized 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.
The federal government is therefore seeking an order by the apex court:
“That by the provisions of the constitution, there must be a democratically elected local government system and that the constitution has not made provisions for any other systems of governance at the local government level other than democratically elected local government system.
“That in the face of the clear provisions of the constitution, the governors have failed and refused to put in place a democratically elected local government system even where no state of emergency has been declared to warrant the suspension of democratic institutions in the state.
“That the failure of the governors to put democratically elected local government system in place, is a deliberate subversion of the 1999 constitution which they and the president have sworn to uphold.
“That all efforts to make the governors comply with the dictates of the 1999 constitution in terms of putting in place, a democratically elected local government system, has not yielded any result.
”To continue to disburse funds from the federation account to governors for non-existing democratically elected local government is to undermine the sanctity of the 1999 constitution.
“That in the face of the violations of the 1999 constitution, the federal government is not obligated under section 162 of the constitution to pay any state, funds standing to the credit of local governments where no democratically elected local government is in place.”
Among governors who have openly opposed local government administration include Seyi Makinde and Charles Soludo of Oyo and Anambra states, respectively.
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