•May approach apex court for enforcement
•We have no control over allocations — NGF
THE National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently direct the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment on local government financial autonomy, insisting that the responsibility for implementing the judgment rests with the Federal Government, not state governors.
The Supreme Court had, in a judgment in July 2024, affirmed the financial autonomy of the country’s 774 local governments.
In the unanimous judgment of its seven-member panel, read by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court held that local governments across the country should receive their allocations directly from the Accountant-General of the Federation.
President Tinubu had last December while addressing a gathering of the All Progressives Congress National Executive Committee meeting threatened to invoke an Executive Order to ensure compliance with the judgment of the Supreme Court.
He said: “Now that you have elections at the local government level, you are the in-vigilators, you elected them and since you elected them, it means you know them. But give them their money and if you don’t do it, I have the Executive Order because I have the yam and the knife. I am just being very respectful and if you don’t start to implement it, you will see.
“The ultimate is our Supreme Court and you have to respect the judgment.”
NULGE President General, Comrade Aliyu Kankara, who spoke to Nigerian Tribune over the weekend, however absolved the governors as he claimed that the issue of autonomy was not under the governors and that they should not be blamed for the delay.
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“The issue of autonomy is not under the governors. It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to implement the Supreme Court judgment, not the governors,” Kankara said.
He urged Tinubu to, “as a matter of urgency,” direct the implementation of the autonomy, warning that continued delay would deny rural communities the development they need and worsen the governance gap in the country.
“Until this autonomy is implemented, we will continue to deny our rural communities the necessary development they need, and also the lingering insecurity will continue because there is a serious gap in governance,” he said.
Kankara said the absence of a viable local government system was creating a governance gap at the grassroots, stressing that the autonomy question was not merely about workers but concerned all Nigerians.
“If you don’t have a viable local government system, you are creating a governance gap in the country,” he said.
He also appealed to the President to uphold the rule of law, noting that Tinubu, as a democratically elected President, should ensure that the Supreme Court judgment was respected.
Kankara said NULGE would continue to pursue available options to secure implementation of the judgment, including a possible return to the Supreme Court to seek enforcement.
“If possible, we will go back to the Supreme Court and seek enforcement of the ruling. We will look at so many options that are available to us to ensure that this autonomy is implemented,” he said.
Asked whether governors should be blamed for the non-implementation of the judgment, he said: “For this one, I don’t blame state governors for the non-implementation of this judgment.”
Explaining his position, he said: “Because state governors don’t control the Federal Ministry of Finance. State governors don’t control the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation. And they also don’t control the CBN.”
He added: “So, I don’t blame state governors for the non-implementation of the judgment. They may have their own share of the blame, but not on this.”
NLC warns of renewed labour action
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), through its spokesperson, Comrade Benson Upah, also warned that the prolonged delay had become consequential and unacceptable, saying the situation could lead to renewed labour action.
Upah said the delay was either the result of a post-judgment understanding between the Federal Government and state governments or pressure allegedly brought to bear on the Federal Government by the states.
“The delayed implementation of local government financial autonomy is either a post-judgment conspiracy between the Federal Government and the state governments or the state governments successfully blackmailed the Federal Government into submission after it successfully obtained a favourable judgment at the Supreme Court against them,” he said.
“Either way, the effects have been injuriously consequential and unacceptable.” He said the earlier the financial autonomy of local governments was implemented, the better for the country, warning that the implications extended to democratic governance, accountability, security and poverty.
“The implications are obvious. Democracy is being practised grudgingly or by instalments,” Upah said.
He further alleged that corruption was “mutating” in state and local government finances, while noting that increasing governance deficits at the local government level were contributing to heightened insecurity and poverty.
“There is increasing governance deficit at the local government level leading to heightened insecurity and poverty,” he said.
Upah warned that failure by government to take the necessary action could lead to a resumption of the suspended labour campaign.
“Except government does the needful, if not, NULGE will resume their suspended action and we will join without hesitation,” he said.
NGF: Governors have no control over Local Governments’ allocations
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has dismissed allegations that state governors are interfering with or withholding statutory allocations meant for Local Government Councils across the country, insisting that the disbursement of federal allocations is the sole responsibility of the Federal Government.
The NGF Director of Media and Strategic Communications, Dr. Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, stated this in an exclusive interview with the Nigerian Tribune while reacting to renewed allegations that some state governments were frustrating the direct payment of allocations to the third tier of government.
Abdullahi maintained that state governments were not responsible for the disbursement of funds from the Federation Account to Local Government Areas, stressing that the process was now outside the control of State Governors.
He said the position became particularly clear following the landmark Supreme Court judgment of July 11, 2024, which ruled that state retention of Local Government funds was unconstitutional and ordered direct payments from the Federation Account to the Councils.
The NGF spokesman said:
“Since the Supreme Court Judgment on July 11, 2024, which ruled that state retention of local government funds is unconstitutional and ordered direct payments from the Federation account, there is no evidence to show non compliance from States.”
He challenged those alleging that governors were frustrating the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment to produce concrete evidence of such non-compliance, saying the Forum would be prepared to respond to specific cases supported by verifiable facts.
According to him, “Except if you have evidence on non compliance, then we can respond to those specific cases.”
Abdullahi further argued that it would be unfair to accuse governors of withholding Local Government allocations without substantial evidence, urging aggrieved council chairmen who believed they had been denied their statutory funds to come forward with documentary proof.
While acknowledging that complaints could arise from individual Local Government Councils, he said such complaints should be treated on a case-by-case basis rather than used to make sweeping allegations against all statte Governors.
He also recalled that the Federal Government had earlier directed that allocations due to Local Governments should be paid directly into the coffers of the Councils, stressing that Governors could not therefore be held responsible for the federal disbursement process.
Abdullahi maintained that, “it’s completely not even in the hands of the Governors.”
He, however, said the NGF would not ignore any genuine complaint from a Local Government chairman who could establish that funds due to his council had not been received, promising that such cases would be addressed on their individual merits.
He therefore assured:
“But if you have a local government chairman who has come out to say he has not gotten that money, then we’ll be responding to it on that specific basis.”
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