Sir: Nigerians are keenly watching the melodrama going on Edo State on the issue of the local government financial autonomy. The apparently state sponsored impeachments of council chairmen by their various councillors will make or mar the much trumpeted financial autonomy granted local government councils across the country.

Recall that the Supreme Court had last July, in a judgment granted full financial autonomy to the 774 local government councils in the country following an Originating Summons by the office of the attorney-general of the federation and the minister of justice. Most of the governors who had the council funds firmly in their pockets have been ill at ease with the judgment. Almost all the governors had organised kangaroo local government elections where their handpicked cronies emerged as winners in the sham elections with a view to circumventing the judgment of the apex court.

Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State is of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Before his ascension to the office last November, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had been in charge of the state and its 18 councils. Therefore, it beggared belief that the APC that had no single council under its control was declared the winner of the last governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The PDP also controlled the state’s House of Assembly members.

Okpebholo obviously had no issue cornering the members of the House of Assembly. It does appear that he has succeeded in wooing them to his side perhaps with the fake promise of returning all of them to the House in 2027, if he (Okpebholo) survives the ongoing litigation at the election petition tribunal. If the Assembly members are naive or hypnotised, their eyes will be opened towards the nomination time for 2027 general election. They may realise it rather too late that they were given a Greek gift.

The major headache of the current government in Edo is how to get rid of the PDP council chairmen knowing full well the amount of money that accrues to 18 councils each month. With the financial autonomy granted to them, the government seems to be unsettled. If the council chairmen were of the same party with the governor, I doubt if this entire hullabaloo coming from the state in recent time would have arisen.

The council chairmen were summoned to submit their financial reports within 48 hours. Can the federal government command states government to submit their financial reports? Even before the summons, the state’s Chief judge had made it clear that the state government cannot dissolve the elected council chairmen. I guess that the state chief judge will be their next target when they are through with the council chairmen, but it will require the accent of the National Judicial Council to remove the chief judge. It won’t be easy for them unless the chief judge is due for retirement.

The council chairmen were suspended for two months by the state House of Assembly for disobeying the illegal summons for submission of their financial reports. When that suspension couldn’t work as planned, they have now resorted to using the gullible council’s councillors apparently coercing them in the current rave of impeachments of council chairmen.

Fortuitously, Edo State is of the APC which is the ruling party in the country. If the governor was from an opposition party, perhaps the federal government would have exhibited its maximum power to suppress or rein in the governor. Other governors are keenly watching the development in Edo. If the state government eventually removes all the PDP council chairmen through the instrumentality of stage-managed impeachments and the federal government keeps quiet, who says that other governors cannot copy from Edo to continue to have the council’s funds in their pockets? The judgment of the Supreme Court may turn out to be a mere academic exercise. Edo will set the precedent.

The contentious issue of financial autonomy for the local councils is yet to be fully resolved regardless of the judgment of the Supreme Court. For instance, Lagos State has 20 councils recognised by the constitution and additional 37 LCDAs created by the administration of the current president as governor. The monthly allocations of the 20 LGAs have been feeding the entire 20 LGAs and the 37 LCDAs for the past 20 years. How did the judgment of the apex court address the Lagos conundrum? The judgment remains inchoate.
 
Ifeanyi Maduako wrote from Owerri via [email protected]