Master of obfuscation, governor Charles Soludo of Anambra state last week, on the occasion of his signing the state’s new Local Government Law which would compel all local governments in the state to remit a portion of their federal allocations into a consolidated account to be controlled by the state government
declared, without a shred of evidence or, as if Anambra is the only state in the country, that:”Absolute autonomy for local governments would mean that each LG would have its own primary education policy, employ its own teachers, and pay them whatever it can afford and whenever it can do so”.
“This, he said, would be a recipe for humongous chaos, not only for the administration of local government and pensions but more so in the primary education and primary health sectors.”
The question that readily comes to mind is whether the governor ever sought the advice of his state’s Attorney – General and Commissioner for justice before deciding to act as an Appellate court over a decision of the Supreme Court.
Or shouldn’t it be a no brainer for the governor to know that he cannot, by himself, set aside a high court decision, talk less, that of the Supreme court?
Read Also; NIS addresses visa-on-arrival application process
I was, however, not in the least surprised when he came up fulminating against the Supreme Court judgment in the lawsuit filed by the Attorney – General on behalf of the Federal Government, seeking full autonomy, and direct funding, to all the 774 local government councils in the country.
This is because as far back as in my article: ‘It is Good That States Have Counter- sued on Local Government Autonomy’ of 16 June, 2024, I have quoted the governor as saying that:”Some people, including some APC members, are clamouring for local government autonomy which will take Nigeria back many decades from what a true federation is”. Continuing, he had said “that there is no federal system in the world where you have three federal units. In the U.S where we copied democracy from, their counties don’t go to Washington to collect money directly. Each state must have the power to design the kind of local government system it wants. That is what is called true federalism”. That was at Platform Nigeria 24, a programme organised by Covenant Nation to mark the 2024 Democracy Day.
I quoted governor Soludo then in support of my position that Local Government Autonomy is antithetical to Federalism. I went further to support my belief with copious quotes from Nigeria’s former Attorney – General and Minister of Justice, the inimitable, Uncle Bola Ige, and concluded by saying that he, as both a lawyer and politician, would be most distraught and disappointed by the action of the otherwise cerebral Attorney – General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, on account of what I described (then) as a professional misstep”.
The question can be asked now as to why I am diametrically opposed to governor Soludo’s position on Local government autonomy, especially financial autonomy?
The first reason is that I can see very clearly how he, an intellectual giant, has cleverly subborned his Lilliputian House of Assembly members, to coyly undo the decision of the Apex court so he could continue to have his hands in the Local Governments’ cookie jar, the very practice the Supreme Court decision had sought to remove.
That this is the intention of Anambra’s new law is in congruence with the general belief that Local Governments in the country remain largely undeveloped because, to put it nicely, most state governors assume near total control of the allocations to their state’s local governments, only giving them whatever fraction of the allocation suits them.
This tampering with local government funds is usually fraudulently done by state governors.
For instance, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, September 30, 2024, arraigned former governor of Taraba State,
Darius Dickson Ishaku and the former permanent secretary, Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in the state, Bello Yero, for fraud before Justice S. C Oriji of the Federal Capital Territory High Court, in respect of Local Government funds claiming that they committed a criminal breach of trust in respect of the LG’s property when they dishonestly diverted the funds to their own use; an offence contrary to Section 315 of the Penal Code Act, Cap 532, Laws of the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria 2007, and punishable under the same Section”.
This thus confirms the allegation that some state governors do pilfer Local Government funds.
I cannot, in light of the above, any longer, and in good conscience, support governor Soludo in his trenchant claim:”that granting full autonomy to Nigeria’s 774 local government areas will lead to “humongous chaos”.
Anambra’s new Local Government Administration Law reminds me of what, good old days, we used to colloquially describe as “stealing by style”.
How, for instance, is this new law in accord with the Apex court’s decision which, in granting LGs’ full autonomy, specifically declared that:
(a) All the 774 local government councils in the country should manage their funds themselves;
(b)that it is the local government that should receive and manage funds meant for local government.
(c)that the state government has no power or control to keep the local government council’s money or funds.
(d)grant an order of injunction restraining the states, by themselves, agents or privies from spending local government allocation; and declare:
(e)that no state government should be paid ANY money meant for the local government, while ordering “an immediate compliance with the judgement”.
Granted, as governor Soludo has not stopped saying, right on roof tops, that the Supreme Court did not invalidate Section 7 of the constitution which empowers state governments to enact laws for the administration of local government areas as a way of underscoring the importance of state oversight, can’t he see the illogic, and the illegality, of uprooting a Supreme Court decision, no matter how cleverly he tried to do it?
Also in fashioning out Laws as to how Anambra state spends its appropriated funds, did the House of Assembly, in any manner, or shape, insinuate a role for the Federal Government which it knows Anambra state is independent of? Therefore, if the hidden agenda is not for the state to control part of LG funds, why did the House of Assembly not restrict the way and manner of expenditure of Local government funds to strictly within organs of the Local Government; factoring in, separately, how they are to meet their responsibilities on Joint state/LG projects?
For me, all this is a ruse by a state governor, aimed at controlling a substantial part of LG funds through the back door, and the attempt must be fought to a standstill.
Indeed, allocations to local government Areas in the state must be stopped immediately, and for as long as the Local governments believe themselves beholden to the illegal law. Anambra state can then head to the Supreme court to try prove the legality of its new law.
Court