…Let’s increase our productivity, boost IGRs, Makinde advises colleagues
…Tinubu’s ingenuity deepening democracy – APC
…The president has liberated LGAs from govs – Ndume
The Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) has described Thursday’s Supreme Court’s judgement granting financial autonomy to local governments as “a relief from the financial burden to state governments.”
The chairman of the NGF and governor of Kwara state, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, who expressed this position on behalf of his colleagues while speaking to journalists at the State House Friday, welcomed the judgement, assuring of compliance by state governments.
AbdulRazaq, who was flanked by the governors of Imo, Hope Uzodinma, and Bauchi, Bala Mohammed, said the ruling was devolution of power that “relieves governors of the significant financial burden of bailing out local governments, an expense that he noted “many Nigerians are unaware of.”
While acknowledging the need for compliance, the NGF Chairman revealed that state attorney generals have applied for the enrollment order, which will be carefully studied.
“We welcome the ruling of the Supreme Court, compliance is a given and our Attorney-Generals have applied for the enrollment order, which we’ll study carefully.
“But by and large, governors are happy with the devolution of power with respect to local government autonomy. It relieves the burden on governors. Our people really don’t know how much states expense in bailing out local governments, and that’s the issue there.
“The Forum will meet next Wednesday, to look at the issue wholly and then come up with a resolution on that. Like I said, we haven’t seen the enrollment of the court order and so we really don’t know what is in there,” he said.
On Kwara state in particular, AbdulRahman said the judgement would not negatively affect it as the state government had not been tampering with Council funds.
“It’s not going to affect the state; we’ve never tampered with local government funds. So, it’s going to continue.
“What the local governments have to do is to manage themselves, especially with the on-coming minimum wage, to manage their affairs and make sure salaries are paid, traditional rulers get their five per cent and those are the main issues,” he said.
Asked why they were at the Villa to see the president, the NGF Boss disclosed that they were in the house to discuss various issues with the president.
“We’ve seen the president on various issues from minimum wage, which he met with labour yesterday, the Supreme Court ruling, and other national issues that concern states as well. It’s omnibus.”
APC’s take
In its reaction, the All Progressives Congress (APC) commended President Tinubu’s ingenuity, vision and commitment towards deepening democracy and turning the local government councils into potential strongholds for development.
The ruling party believed that Thursday’s verdict of the Supreme Court would turn it into more efficient service delivery to the populations at the grassroots.
“The Supreme Court decision struck down the proxy system in which state governments received federal allocations on behalf of local government councils in the country.”
This was contained in a statement issued Friday in Abuja by the APC national publicity secretary, Felix Morka.
According to the publicity scribe, the decision signifies a historic moment in the consolidation of democratic federalism in our country.
He said, “It gives practical expression to constitutional recognition of local government councils as the third tier of government. It constitutes a single most significant stride towards restructuring Nigeria since the country’s return to civilian democratic rule in 1999.
“The Justice Emmanuel Agim-led seven-man panel also upheld the position of the federal government that governors lack authority under the law to arbitrarily dissolve democratically-elected local governments councils and set up caretaker committees in their place as ubiquitously practised.
“We applaud the Supreme Court for justifying itself, and for its courage in rendering a definitive decision on this vexed national issue. The clarity that it brings will, no doubt, spur further reform for effectiveness, transparency and accountability of local government administration in the country.
“We commend the ingenuity, vision and commitment of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu towards deepening our democracy and turning our local government councils into potential strongholds for development and more efficient service delivery to our populations at the grassroots.”
Makinde’s admonition
Following the landmark judgement, the Oyo state governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde, has urged state governments to focus on how to increase productivity and boost their internally generated revenues (IGRs) for the development of their states and the country.
Makinde gave the advice when he received in audience the national executive members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) led by its president, Dr. Chris Iziguzo, in Ibadan, during his decoration as the Grand Patron of the Oyo state NUJ Council Thursday.
According to the governor, in doing this, it is now time for the state governments to focus more on productive activities that can boost their internally generated revenues.
He noted that it was unfortunate that “we cannot feed ourselves in the country; Nigeria as a country blessed with arable land and good weather should not be importing food.”
He said, “The issue we have is that we’re not producing enough, we’re not productive. Whatever it is that we’re sharing in Abuja, which is what this FAAC is all about, you want to have value for it, but our real problem is productivity.
“It’s a big shame for this country that we cannot feed ourselves. We should go back to those things that will allow us to bring confidence back to our people and to ensure that this country is back on the path of growth and economic progress.
“I would say that it (the Supreme Court judgement) has nothing to do with us here in Oyo state because since I came in, we’ve conducted local government elections twice, and for one day after we held the first election, there’s been no caretaker anywhere. We planned and gave allowance for the election process to go on smoothly. So, it’s not a big problem for us.”
Makinde, while lamenting the inability of many of the local government areas in the country to generate revenue outside of the federal allocation, said the focus of the country should be on how to increase productivity.
He charged journalists in the country to always set aside personal and parochial interests and focus on overriding national and corporate interests while discharging their duties.
“Whatever anyone wants to become, it is only possible when we have a country. So, all of us, including journalists, must always be guided by the overriding interests of developing our state and the country. Journalists must practise development journalism that stands for the interest of the generality of the people.”
The NUJ president, Dr. Chris Iziguzo, in his remarks, tasked journalists to embrace development and solution-based journalism rather than overplaying the challenges confronting the nation.
He stressed that other nations across the world have diverse challenges also, but have attracted investments and people from other parts due to the positive projection of their images to the rest of the world.
Isiguzo commended Governor Makinde’s people-oriented projects across all sectors in the state, which, according to him, have impacted the internally generated revenue of the state positively.
He added that the recognition of the governor as the grand patron was meant to “identify and appreciate him as one of the leaders that have been impacting meaningfully on the lives of the people.”
On the entourage of the NUJ president were the vice-president (South-west B Zone), Princess Ronke Afebioye-Samo; national financial secretary, Comrade Samuel Dada; national trustee member, B Zone, Comrade Adebayo Akamo; zonal secretary, South-west, Abdulrazak Alege, and the NUJ chairman, Oyo state chapter, Ademola Babalola.
Ndume hails verdict
Meanwhile, the Chief Whip of the Senate, Mohammed Ali Ndume, has praised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for initiating a Supreme Court case that “has freed local government areas from the financial control of governors.”
In a statement released Friday, Ndume described the judgement as the “biggest achievement of President Tinubu so far since he assumed office in May 2023.”
He also called on President Tinubu to “immediately commence the implementation of the court judgement without further delay,” noting that the people at the grassroots must begin to feel the impacts of good governance.
Ndume said further that since state governors hijacked the local government administration in the country, by relying on a controversial Section of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, “no meaningful development has happened at the grassroots.”
He said, “This court action instituted at the behest of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the biggest achievement of his. I’m very happy about the development, and I’m hoping that this will be the beginning of the liberation of local governments in Nigeria.
“I urge the President to immediately commence the implementation of the court judgement. Local government councils need to start getting their monthly allocations immediately without any further delays. The people at the grassroots levels will begin to feel the impacts of good governance now.
“The National Assembly made several attempts to amend the 1999 Constitution and address this grey area. But governors didn’t allow the state assemblies to give the constitutional concurrence. That was how the attempts failed.”
Continuing, he said, “President Muhammadu Buhari also tried to intervene. Governors didn’t allow him. With this Supreme Court judgement, the issue has finally been resolved. No more unnecessary deductions from funds earmarked for local governments.
“The people can now hold the Council chairmen accountable for how they spend their monthly allocations. They’ll begin to demand true accountability and judicious use of the funds they’ll be getting. I salute the courage of President Tinubu.”
ADC’s appreciation
In its view, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) stated that “the Supreme Court ruling affirming local government financial autonomy is an unprecedented political victory for the judiciary and a clear manifestation of how each arm of government can drive development by taking principled and patriotic positions for the interest of Nigeria.”
The party described the verdict as “a great outcome for our democracy and catalyst for national development.”
In a statement issued Friday, the national chairman, Chief Ralph Okey Nwosu, said, “My party, the ADC, has continued to advocate for the active participation of the local government area councils in running our affairs as the council is the authentic grassroots leadership any nation needs to make organic progress.
“Total local government autonomy, financial, and otherwise are critical for grassroots development.
“I congratulate Mr. President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for the bold step not minding his past and the antics of state governors and some of the legislators. The main kudos and compliments goes to the men and women who sat in the Supreme Court today to affirm that “all the local government councils across the country should, from Thursday, receive their allocations directly from the Accountant-General of the Federation.”
He added, “The judiciary has by this singular ruling breathed life into our local governments and vitality to all communities and persons in this country. They have also put the shameful actions of all the governors who have served for the last 21 years to an end.
“The governors, all of them without exception, have acted as octopuses strangulating local government and our communities’ development and in many ways debasing our democracy.
“By the time we have free local governments with five to 10 billion naira distributed to each of the 774 of them annually, the effect will be phenomenal. Some LGA councils’ performances will put many governors to shame.
“At the same time, I will call on Chief Edozie Njoku to compel the governor of my state to fix a date for conducting the Local government council’s election in Anambra state without delay.
“Anambra state has remained the worst hit state, as the successive governors have been operating with caretaker and interim council structure for the last 21 years. Records show that all the governors have lavished over trillions of local government funds.
“To strengthen the judgement, I further call on all the national chairmen of all other political parties that are in control of the states to call their governors to conduct local council elections forthwith.”