FG Takes Governors to Supreme Court, Demands LG Autonomy

FG wants total autonomy for LGs and drags state governors before the Supreme Court

The federal government filed a complaint in the Supreme Court to pursue legal action against the governors of each of the 36 states in the union. This case has been started by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice (Lateef Fagbemi), who are accusing each other of wrongdoing in the management of Local Government Areas (LGAS).

The purpose of this case is to provide complete autonomy to every local government unit in the country. The court has been particularly asked by the federal government, acting through the AGF, to issue an order prohibiting state governors from unlawfully, unilaterally, and arbitrarily dissolving democratically elected local government leaders.

Attorneys General from each of the 36 states filed lawsuits against their respective governors.

Additionally, the case requests an order permitting the direct distribution of monies to local governments from the federation account, in compliance with constitutional rules, as opposed to the allegedly illegal joint accounts established by the governors.

Furthermore, the federal government has asked the Supreme Court to issue an order that forbids governors from creating caretaker committees to oversee local government operations because this practice runs counter to the democratic system that is protected by the constitution.

The Federal Government claimed that Nigeria was created as a federation in accordance with the 1999 Constitution (as amended) in the 27 grounds stated in favor of the lawsuit. The president has taken an oath to protect and carry out the terms of the Constitution in his capacity as leader of the federal executive branch.

The governors, as executive governors, have vowed to respect the Constitution at all times and represent the federation's member states, the Federal Government notified the Supreme Court.

It asserts that the federal, state, and local governments are recognized as the three tiers of government in Nigeria by the Constitution. It also says that these three levels of government have the right to use the federation account, which was created by the constitution, to get money for operations and functions.

“That in the face of the clear provisions of the constitution, the governors have failed and refused to put in place a democratically elected local government system even where no state of emergency has been declared to warrant the suspension of democratic institutions in the state.

“That the failure of the governors to put democratically elected local government system in place, is a deliberate subversion of the 1999 constitution which they and the president have sworn to uphold.

“That all efforts to make the governors comply with the dictates of the 1999 constitution in terms of putting in place, a democratically elected local government system, has not yielded any result and that to continue to disburse funds from the federation account to governors for non-existing democratically elected local government is to undermine the sanctity of the 1999 constitution.

“That in the face of the violations of the 1999 constitution, the Federal Government is not obligated under section 162 of the constitution to pay any state, funds standing to the credit of local governments where no democratically elected local government is in place.”

A hearing has been scheduled for May 30 by the Supreme Court.