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.