NIGERIA’s relegated third tier of government, the Local Government administration, got a boost on Thursday when the Supreme Court made some landmark declarations, settling a decades-long debate on the financial demarcation between the 36 state governments of the Federation and 774 LG administrations across the country.
Designed to be the closest to the people and recognised by Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution, the efficiency of the government at the grassroots has been hampered by the weight of some overbearing governors who see the third tier of government as offshoots of their political dynasties undeserving of both financial and democratic independence.
The subjugation of the LG system by governors dates back to the beginning of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic in 1999. Labour unions like the Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) and the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) had over the years clamoured for LG autonomy whilst some governors allegedly mismanaged the allocations for local governments.
Before the landmark verdict by the apex court on Thursday, LG funds were paid into a joint account operated by state governments and local governments in their domains.
But not anymore.
Now, LGs will get 20.60% of the country’s monthly revenue allocations directly in accounts exclusively theirs while the Federal Government’s 52.68%, and states’ 26.72% remain.
Here is a timeline of the agitation in the last 10 years:
2013: Governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress warned the National Assembly against LG autonomy.
2014: ALGON, in its quest for LG autonomy, said the independence of the third tier will guarantee development at the grassroots.
2015: A northern socio-cultural group, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), threw its weight behind the agitation and asked state governments to grant autonomy to local governments.
2017: Local government workers staged a nationwide protest and demanded LG autonomy. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) also staged protests during the same period.
2017: Samuel Ortom, then governor of Benue State, and chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), backed LG autonomy.
2022: Ortom and his Rivers State colleague, Nyesom Wike, both of the PDP, challenged then President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC to expose governors stealing LG funds.
2022: Local government workers continued demands for “absolute’ LG autonomy.
2023: Just before the election, then Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege said LG autonomy was a big challenge facing constitutional review.
May 2024: Exactly a year after President Bola Tinubu of the APC was sworn in, the 10th Senate asked the President to start an advocacy for full LG autonomy.
May 2024: Some days later, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, dragged the 36 governors to the Supreme Court over LG autonomy.
May 2024: Also in May, the apex court gave states seven days to file their defence.
June 2024: The Supreme Court reserved judgment in the suit filed by the AGF.
June 2024: Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo vocally rejects LG autonomy, saying that it would “take Nigeria back many decades from what a true federation is about”.
July 2024: The Supreme Court barred governors from dissolving democratically elected LG councils and that the Federal Government should pay LG funds directly to them.