Falana: LGAs In 22 States Won’t Get Funds Until Elected Officials Take Office

The senior lawyer disagreed with former Delta governor, James Ibori’s assertion that the apex court judgement is a setback to the principle of true federalism. This judgement is a significant step towards ensuring the financial independence of LGAs and promoting democratic governance at the grassroots level. Femi Falana, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has said the Federation Account will not release funds to Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 22 states that are currently run by Caretaker Committees.

Falana said this in a Channels TV programme.

This is a result of Thursday’s Supreme Court judgement, which granted financial autonomy to LGAs across the country.

He said until elected officials are in place, the LGAs in these 22 states will not have access to funds from the Federation Account.

He said, “There are several judgments to the effect that no governor has the power to dissolve elected local government, but that occurred on a regular basis.

“Today, out of 36 states in the country, 22 governors have sacked local government officials and installed Caretaker Committees, contrary to the stipulation of Section 7 of the Constitution and the flagrant disobedience of several judgments of the court.”

He added, “The local government autonomy provision is clear, and every lawyer is aware of Section 7 of the Constitution to the effect that the system of local government in Nigeria shall be by democratically elected councils.

“Unknown to most Nigerians, Section 7, Subsection 6, provides that in every state, the House of Assembly shall make a law to facilitate the allocation of funds from the state government to the local government, apart from the allocation from the Federation Account.

“The state government is also required under the Constitution to give money for the development of local government, which is why funds from the Federal Government should pass through a Joint State and Local Government Account.

“Furthermore, Section 7 provides that in every state in Nigeria, the House of Assembly shall make a law to enable local government to participate in the economic planning of the state, and, in fact, there shall be an economic board in every state that involves state and local government officials, but this provision is ignored by state governors.

“What the Supreme Court says in effect of Section 162 is that the money is being diverted. The money gets to the joint account but never gets to the local government. The Supreme Court has now ordered that henceforth the money shall go to the local government.”

According to Vanguard, there are 462 local governments currently run by caretaker committees in the 22 states including Rivers, Anambra, Imo, Kwara, Zamfara, Yobe, Ondo and Osun.

Others are Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Benue, Bauchi, Plateau, Abia, Enugu, Katsina, Kano, Sokoto and Jigawa

However, Delta elected chairmen and councillors into its 25 local government areas on Saturday, July 13.

Falana commended the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi SAN for filing “one of the very rare public-interest litigations” from his office.

He decried the failure of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to put in place a mechanism for dealing with lawyers in public office who defile the Constitution or who fail to give appropriate advice to the federal and state governments.

The senior lawyer disagreed with former Delta governor, James Ibori’s assertion that the apex court judgement is a setback to the principle of true federalism.

“With profound respect to Chief James Ibori, I think the argument is a bit contradictory. In the 1950s, nobody was going to Abuja to collect money.

“Every region depended on its own resources and can be described as the golden era of cocoa production in the West, groundnut in the North, and palm kernel in the East.

“But, today, everybody goes to Abuja. So, for me, it’s distorted federalism. You can’t collect money from the central purse; money meant for the development of the Niger Delta when it gets to you, and for you to send it to the local government you divert it, you then realise it’s a setback for federalism. So, it is contradictory,” Falana said