EDITORIAL: The plot to hijack council funds, despite Supreme Court verdict

The funds of Local Government Areas, recently sequestered through the effort of the Federal Government, to forestall their continued abuse by state governors, would be released to them at the end of this October, thereby confirming their financial autonomy as the third tier of government. However, a rampart is seemingly underway through newer schemes to hijack these funds by state governments. This is a clear affront to the rule of law, given the subsisting judicial pronouncement on the matter.

The crux of the 11th July judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, is the declaration that funds statutorily accrued to councils should be paid directly to their accounts, instead of being remitted to the State/Local Governments Joint Accounts, from where the governors conventionally siphoned them. The apex court also outlawed non-elected chairpersons and councillors from being in charge of affairs of the councils, as this contravenes the 1999 Constitution, as amended. Councils under improperly constituted administrations would henceforth not be entitled to any financial allocation.

Before this landmark judgement, most councils were run by caretaker committees, whose members were appointed by state governors, and used to manipulate the system, in violation of the Constitution. After the Supreme Court decision, the Federal Government gave all the states without elected local government officials, 90 days to do the needful. Frenzied electoral activities have, as a result, been taking place at the grassroots level towards actualising this democratic mandate.

The attempt at a fresh ambush of local government funds by state governments came to limelight in the Senate through a motion by Tony Nwoye, which was co-sponsored by nine other members. They sought a backdoor design to lay hands on these council allocations from the Federal Government, with the Anambra State instance serving as an example.

According to Nwoye, the state assembly has passed the administration of LGA Bill 2024, which requires the councils to remit an amount so decided by the state, from their federal monthly allocations into a dedicated account, within two days of the receipt of the funds.

As stated, effect was given to this obvious challenge to the sanctity of this constitutional law last Tuesday, when Governor Chukwuma Soludo signed the bill into law. It re-created in its Section 13(1), a “State Joint Local Government Account”, into which each council shall pay 20 per cent of its allocation, for joint services every month. Soludo declared that absolute autonomy of the 774 local government councils in the country would spark a “humongous chaos.” For him, the new state assembly law will “…give (an) operational life line to the Supreme Court judgment, and not to undermine it.” His logic is certainly contentious and could even be considered as disingenuous.

Unfortunately, Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution, which empowers state houses of assembly to enact laws for the administration of the Councils’, is being used as a refuge by Soludo. He may have to look for another machination outside this constitutional framework, as the Supreme Court decision effectively neutered his self-serving intendment.

Apart from Nwoye, other senators have equally confirmed subterfuges to be alive in their respective states with regards to the council funds. The traditional control of these funds by governors has crippled governance at the grassroots in much of the 774 local council areas of the country. Hence the wide applause received by the apex court judgment with its injection of a new life into grassroots governance.

Media reports allege that many elected chairpersons and councillors took oaths of secrecy and allegiance to governors, to maintain the old order of the total hand over of council treasuries to them. This appears as the condition precedent to their being allowed to contest to head the council in the first place. It may well be that the governors purchased their expression of interest forms, which cost as much as N10 million each in some states.

Those who refuse to be submissive, or violate the secret oath taken along the line, risk suspension or impeachment from office, through the state or council legislatures, which are largely loyal to the governors. A former Chairman of Ijebu-East LGA in Ogun State, Wale Adedayo, was a victim of this absurdity, for speaking against his state governor’s non-release of due council funds. This is not healthy for our democracy.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, who filed the suit at the Supreme Court on behalf of the Federal Government, should not allow Soludo’s action to go unchallenged, by taking curative steps that will underscore the primacy of rule of law in governance, otherwise this has the tendency to become contagious, as many governors consider council funds as their entitlements.

Importantly, governors need to allow local councils to function as prescribed in the Constitution, being the third tier of government. The concerns for their autonomy and sanctity of the Supreme Court verdict expressed in the Senate penultimate week, should not be in vain. The legislature had warned of National Assembly’s readiness to alter the relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution, which the governors seek to exploit; in this case, Section 162 (6) that created the State/LGAs joint account, and Section 7 used to attempt the invalidation of the Supreme Court decision.

Even if the mutation in their operations serve no more than an experiment in local government administration in the country, so be it. They have statutory responsibilities under the Constitution for which funds are allocated to them. The administration of primary schools, waste disposal, primary healthcare delivery, transportation, rural roads maintenance, provision of signage, cemeteries and abattoirs, markets and motor parks are under their schedule of duty. Let them begin to discharge these duties now, falter, and make amends. It is how public institutions grow.

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All over the world, county or municipal governments, called Local Government Areas in Nigeria, provide social services, which could be seamless in their delivery, as seen in the UK, Canada, France, and the US, among other jurisdictions. LGAs functioned creditably during the First Republic and even in the 1970s, until the over-centralisation of duties that ordinarily should have been devolved, took the centre stage in public service. It bred the culture of pillaging the public treasury and the lack of accountability in public office. It is, therefore, time to turn the page.

The increased distributable pool of revenue means more cash for each of the three tiers of governments. The N1.298 trillion shared for September had N329.864 billion accrued to the LGAs. Their three-month cash inflow from FAAC, by October ending, accounts for why a number of state governments have begun to scheme how to take charge of these funds.

Therefore, all eyes should focus on the councils, including the anti-graft agencies and civil society organisations, to see how they will handle their regained autonomy in either deepening this democracy or ruining it.