The Supreme Court of Nigeria has reserved judgment in the federal government’s suit which seeks to stop the governors of 36 states from spending or tampering with 20.6% allocation from the federation account to local government areas, among other reliefs.
A seven-man panel of the court presided by Justice Garba Lawal reserved its verdict on the local government autonomy legal dispute.
The suit is coming amid the distribution of N1.143 trillion to the three tiers of government for May 2024, as announced by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
In the suit marked SC/CV/343/2024 and seen by Nairametrics, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), argued that in the face of the clear provisions of the 1999 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.
FG’s stand on LGAs
Fagbemi submitted that all efforts to make the governors comply with the dictates of the 1999 Constitution in putting in place democratically elected local government systems have not yielded any result.
He maintained that FAAC allocations for the LGAs must go to their accounts.
He added that to continue to disburse funds from the Federation Account to governors for non-existing democratically elected local governments is to undermine the sanctity of the 1999 Constitution.
He told the apex court that the failure of the governors to put a democratically elected local government system in place is a deliberate subversion of the 1999 Constitution.
He stated, “That the governors represent the component states of the Federation with Executive Governors who have also sworn to uphold the Constitution and to at all times, give effects to the Constitution and that the Constitution, being the supreme law, has binding force all over the Federation of Nigeria.”
The AGF prayed the apex court to hold that FAAC allocations to local governments should go to their accounts and not to joint accounts between states and LGAs, which empower the governors to do as they please with the funds.
What transpired at the apex court
At the resumed hearing, the Attorneys-General of the 36 states adopted their respective preliminary objections against FG’s suit.
They unanimously maintained that the AGF lacked the legal right to commence the legal action, insisting that the suit be struck out.
Some of the states contended that the AGF suit amounts to an abuse of court process as they have functional democratically elected LG officials in place.
After hearing the parties, the apex court reserved judgment to a latter date “to be communicated to the parties.”
More insights
The Supreme Court has jurisdiction to hear and determine issues between the FG and states.
The states and LGAs have been operating a joint account over the years but the AGF is now saying that payments to the LGAs should be made directly to its separate accounts.
There has been an outcry from the LGAs regarding financial autonomy.
The suit is apparently a constitutional matter and seeks interpretation from the apex court.
In the current FAAC allocation system, the Federal Government gets 52.68%; states receive 26.72%, and local governments are given 20.6%.