THE Supreme Court has reserved its judgement in the case brought by the Federal Government against the 36 state governors seeking full autonomy for the 774 local governments in the country.
Justice Garba Lawal informed the involved parties that they will be notified once the judgment is ready.
The announcement followed a review of the Attorney General of the Federation’s (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, submissions on behalf of the Federal Government and those of the 36 state governors by a 7-man panel of the apex court.
During the proceedings today, the AGF requested the court to grant all the reliefs sought by the Federal Government in the suit, while the governors, represented by their respective state Attorneys General and Commissioners for Justice, opposed the request and urged the court to dismiss the suit.
The AGF, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), had initiated the legal action on behalf of the Federal Government, primarily seeking full autonomy for local governments as a fundamental aspect of the three tiers of government in the country.
The AGF is seeking an order from the apex court to prevent state governors from unilaterally and unlawfully dissolving democratically elected local government leaders, among other requests.
In a separate context, Anambra State Governor Chukwuma Soludo stated that any form of autonomy for local government areas in the country contradicts the principles of true federalism.
He expressed this view during The Platform Nigeria, an event organized by a Lagos-based church, Covenant Nation, to commemorate Democracy Day 2024.
He emphasized that true federalism entails granting each state the power to design its local government system, rather than establishing a separate autonomy for local governments.
He said, “Funny enough, more recently, some people are arguing for the autonomy of local governments including some APC persons, which would take Nigeria back many decades from what a true federation is about.
“There is no federal system in the world where you have three federal units. The counties in America where we copied (democracy), their local governments don’t go to the centre to collect money directly.
“Each state must have the power to design the kind of local government system they want. That is what true federalism is about.”
