Governors have been acting tongue-in-cheek in their reactions to last Thursday’s verdict of the Supreme Court, which stripped them of their suffocating grip  over the money meant for local governments in the country. As a collective, the governors unreservedly endorsed the judgement. Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Kwara State Governor, AbdulRazak AbdulRahman, who spoke on behalf of the governors, said the forum welcomed the apex court’s ruling granting financial autonomy to the councils, describing the verdict as a relief from the burden on the governors. Addressing State House Correspondents on the matter after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Friday, Governor AbdulRazak was flanked by the Chairman of All Progressives Congress Governors’ Forum, Hope Uzodimma, and Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum, Dr Bala Mohammed, suggesting they were all in agreement with Governor AbdulRasak in his pronouncement.

“Our Attorney-General has applied for the enrolment order, which we will study carefully. But by and large, governors are happy with the devolution of power in respect of local government autonomy. It relieves the burden on governors. Our people really don’t know how much states expend in bailing out local governments, and that’s the issue there,” Governor AbdulRasak said, adding that his government in Kwara State had never tampered with local government funds.

However, it was learnt that the governors were not happy with the decision of the federal government to take them to court and are merely playing to the gallery. For instance, a few days after the NGF Chairman spoke, Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, who is of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, described the case as a distraction. He questioned the sustainability of local governments receiving allocations from the federal government. Speaking with members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists in Ibadan, Oyo State, the governor said: “They said there is a judgment of the Supreme Court on local government autonomy. I think it is just a distraction. We must face the real issue that we have. The issue that we have is that we are not producing enough. We are not productive. Maybe it may be part of the problem, we want to have value for what is being shared but our problem is productivity.”

The Senate, in a motion by the then Chairman of the Senate ad-hoc committee on Constitution Review, Ovie Omo-Agege, said during plenary that 27 out of the 36 state assemblies had forwarded their resolutions on the constitution amendment bills to the National Assembly. Presenting his committee report, Omo-Agege said 35 bills satisfied constitutional provision, having been approved by not less than 24 state assemblies. Nine bills could not scale through. Prominent among the bills voted against by the state parliaments was the one seeking to grant financial and administrative autonomy to the country’s local governments. Also among the bills that did not sail through are the ones seeking the abrogation of state-local government joint account and establishment of local government as a tier of government, meaning a majority of the state assemblies, and by extension the governors, never wanted local governments to have absolute freedom.
It’s perhaps in realisation of this, and the overarching need for local governments to be financially empowered to cater to the challenges at the grassroots that President Tinubu took upon himself the crusade for financial autonomy for the local governments. He mandated the Attorney-General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Chief Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to institute a case against the governors at the Supreme Court.

“In this case since paying them through states has not worked, the justice of this case demands that the local government allocations from the Federation Account should henceforth be paid directly to the LG councils,” the apex court ruled. On the dissolution of democratically elected councils and appointments of caretaker committees by governors, Justice Agim held that it is a mandatory duty of the state governments or governors, under Section 7 (1) of the Constitution, to ensure their existence. “A democratically-elected local government is sacrosanct and non-negotiable,” the court added.
This landmark judgment is a critical step forward. It has now become imperative for the governors to file behind President Tinubu in ensuring that local councils become an independent and self-governing tier of government. The governors’ buy-in is important because when the chips are down, the state chief executives will still play an influential role in the election of local government chairmen. The governors must understand that to ensure genuine grassroots development and further strengthen our democracy, the local governments must be empowered financially.

There is also the matter of ownership of lands and granting of development plans in the states. Asiwaju Tinubu as Lagos governor filed a case at the Supreme Court to determine who had the power to control urban and regional planning in a state. Two of the issues determined were: whether the ownership rights of the federal Government over land in state territories include the power to control and regulate town planning and physical development in relation to such land.  And, whether all approvals, permits, and licences granted by the 1st defendant (federal government) or any of its agencies for any construction, building or physical development, or use of land in Lagos without the consent of the plaintiff are not illegal, null, and void. The Supreme Court granted the states power to grant building approvals and other development plans in the states where such federally-acquired lands are domiciled while not denying the federal government the right to also acquire lands in the states.

Importantly, the Nigerian Fiscal Policy and Tax Reform Committee led by Mr. Taiwo Oyedele is still busy working on comprehensive tax reforms, including reforms to the country’s value-added tax (VAT) and other taxes that will restructure the system and further advance fiscal federalism in the end.
Back to the issue of LG autonomy. There is still more work to be done. Like the state governors, the National Assembly must take concrete legislative actions to support the vision. The laws governing local government elections must be reworked to transfer the responsibility of conducting these elections to the Independent National Electoral Commission as opposed to the state independent electoral authorities, which are only independent in name. This legislative initiative is crucial to eliminating the undue influence of state governors over the local government election process and ensuring the integrity of the polls. This change will be a significant move in complementing President Tinubu and Supreme Court’s efforts towards achieving genuine local government autonomy and enhancing democratic governance in Nigeria.

Speaking when he hosted some Yoruba elders on April 16, 2024 at the Presidential Villa, President Tinubu had pointed out that the matter of restructuring would be systematic, saying when the economy is properly on a firm footing, steps would be taken on restructuring so that it will be on a solid footing. “As I said in Akure, our approach to it would be as if a baby is learning how to walk. If the baby is rushed, it will fall,” he had said.

•Rahman is a Senior Presidential Aide.