The Senate on Wednesday made a very strong statement against states and Houses of Assembly that are bent on thwarting the efforts made to ensure that the Local Governments get full autonomy from the shackles of state governments.
It has therefore told the states and local governments to immediately comply with the Supreme Court judgement, particularly relating to local government accounts and the funds given directly to them.
The apex law-making body also resolved to take immediate steps to alter sections of the Constitution to give full autonomy to local government administration in the country.
The resolutions were announced by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Jibrin Barau, Lawmakers upon reconvening from a closed-door session where the Chamber debated attempts by some state governments to circumvent the ruling of the Supreme Court on July 11.
This was after Senator Tony Nwoye had raised the urgent need to halt the implementation of actions of state governments using their state Houses of Assembly, to enact laws that breach constitutional provisions, and the Supreme Court judgment on granting financial autonomy to local governments in line with the provisions of the constitution.
The motion was co-sponsored by 12 other senators on an alleged move by some state governments to circumvent implementation of the judgement through counter laws from their respective state House of Assembly.
The motion says, “Further concerned that the modus Operandi of subverting this financial autonomy of Local governments by state governments through their houses of assembly is to insert clauses in their laws requiring the Local Governments upon receipt of their allocation from Federation Account to remit all or majority or substantial portion of their allocation to a dedicated account which the State Governments will keep, control, manage or disburse for them using some nomenclatures like state/LGA joint account, state/LGA Consolidated revenue account, Local Government Joint Security Trust account etc.”
Senator Nwoye alleged that some state governors are already using their House of Assembly to enact laws that would mandate respective local government councils in their states, to remit monies into State/Local Government Joint Accounts ruled against by the Supreme Court.
In July, the Supreme Court declared that it is unconstitutional for state governors to hold onto funds meant for Local Government (LG) administrations.
The Supreme Court also barred governors from dissolving democratically elected Local Government councils in the country.
The apex court, in a landmark judgement, said doing so, would amount to a breach of the 1999 Constitution
