LG autonomy: NASS urged to support Supreme Court judgement with new law

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dr Alex Izinyon, has called on the National Assembly to enact laws that will give adequate effect to the Supreme Court’s judgement on Local Government Autonomy.

He criticised the National Assembly for failing to meet expectations despite the apex Court’s efforts to ensure the right thing is done in local government administration in the country.

On July 11, 2024, the Supreme Court in a landmark judgement declared that funds accruing to the local government areas in the country should be directly paid into their accounts for smooth LG administration.

According to Izinyon, as expected, the decision attracted several accolades from laymen, jurists, scholars, legal pundits, and legal practitioners, saying, however, that there is the other side of the divide who differ entirely.

“Their contention primarily is that it amounted to judicial legislation and making pronouncements against the principle of Federalism. Even politicians also had their day and say,” he said.

Izinyon, in a statement Wednesday, said the Supreme Court is indubitably and constitutionally the final court of the land, saying they are final in all ramifications of finality in any dispute that is brought before it.

He said, “The Supreme Court of Nigeria as a court of law and policy, over time even though final, has taken into consideration social, economic, and political factors or called it the reality of time in arriving at certain decisions as a policy court. These are decisions that have a larger touch on society as a whole, like the Nigerian citizens as a whole.

“The Constitution makes provision for 774 Local Government Areas under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) in the First Schedule and they are expected to be autonomous. It is no longer news that apart from the few State Governors who had kept to this autonomous nature of the Local Government, others have swallowed them up as part of their departments and in most cases dissolved the democratically elected Local Government Area Councils and appointed Caretaker Committees. Are we not as Nigerians eyewitnesses to these happenings in the last 25 years of democracy? No soothsayer or Prof. Peller of blessed memory is needed to tell us so.

“Have we forgotten so soon that apart from some few States, no election has been held in many of the Local Government Areas, but run by Caretaker Committees in Nigeria for over 10 years. Indeed have we forgotten the case of A-G LAGOS STATE VS A-G FEDERATION (2004) 18 NWLR (PT. 904) 1 where despite the clear provision of Schedule 1 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) which listed out 20 Local Government Areas for Lagos State, the then Governor of Lagos State created additional Local Government Areas which prompted the then President to withhold the entire Lagos State allocation, which included the Constitutionally 20 Local Government Councils and the additional created Area Councils?

“The Supreme Court in that case on the ground of policy as a policy Court held that the President had no power to withhold the State allocation or suspend it and that the State was entitled to the said allocation to be so released but tied to the 20 Local Government Councils created by the Constitution and not the additional Local Government Areas created. The decision was unanimous on this issue.

“The court from 1999 has never kept quiet on this.

“Indeed under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 the courts have never hidden their disdain for the unconstitutional acts of the State Governors dissolving democratically elected Local Government Chairmen and appointing Caretaker Committees in their stead. The cases are numerous.”

The learned silk said the state governors never took heed to the numerous pronouncements by the apex court, despite their respective states being manned by Attorneys-General and Commissioners of Justice.

According to him, the National Assembly has failed to play its role effectively, despite the many judgments of the Supreme Court on the issue, calling on the lawmakers to live up to their duties.

He said, “In all these years, where is the National Assembly after the Supreme Court decision in A-G LAGOS STATE VS. A-G FEDERATION (SUPRA) to correct by legislation or amendment that the joint account referred to is for the State and the Local Government Areas, created by Schedule 1 of the 1999 Constitution. Despite the pronouncements of the Supreme Court on the unconstitutionality of the Governors sacking duly elected Local Government Chairmen and their councillors in the cases just cited over these years, has the National Assembly risen to the challenge urgently to remedy this situation? They did not and may never.”

He said the Supreme Court has always risen to the task when it involves policy as a policy court, to make decisions in the interest of justice by adopting a more purposive approach in the interpretation of any provision of the law, especially the Constitution.

The legal practitioner stated: “The Supreme Court as a policy Court in this particular case went into their legal archive and decisions where they had declared that the dissolution of a democratically elected Local Government Council by a Governor of a State is unconstitutional and illegal. It was not therefore surprising that the Supreme Court went into detail to review the antecedent of what had been happening.

“It interpreted the provision of Section 162(3) of the 1999 Constitution, and that it cannot mean that the State Governors would hold and disburse the funds on behalf of the Local Government Council the said money coming from the Federation Account, as sub-sections (6),(7) & (8) of the said Constitution stipulates that all monies belonging and due to Local Government Council from the Federation Account, should be distributed to the Local Government Council in the State. This view is to cure the mischief by judicial fiat as a policy court, the incurable injury that has been done to the Local Government Area Councils for two decades without the National Assembly doing the needful.

“The Supreme Court eloquently re-echoed its long line of decisions on the provision of Section 7(1) of the Constitution that expressly provides for democratically elected Local Government Council and if that is the case, it should be Local Government Council that should control and manage this fund including allocation from the Federation belonging to the said Local Government Council for the wellbeing and development of the said Local Government Area. It was on this platform the Supreme Court referred to its earlier decisions where they held that a Governor of a State cannot dissolve a democratically elected Local Government Council.

“Let it be said that the Supreme Court has always risen to the task when it involves policy as a policy court, to make decisions in the interest of justice by adopting a more purposive approach in the interpretation of any provision of the law, especially the Constitution.

“What is left is for the National Assembly to proceed with the enabling legislation to give teeth to this profound decision and make other adequate safeguards by legislation to ensure proper accountability and the relevant authorities to beam their searchlight in case the Local Government Councils fall short of this golden opportunity.”