State Govs To Meet Over Supreme Court Judgement On LG Autonomy
State governors will be meeting next week to deliberate on the recent ruling of the Supreme Court over Local Government Autonomy, says the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and the Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRazaq AbdulRahman.
News Telly reports the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that all federal allocations for local government councils should be paid directly into their accounts. In Nigeria, most states operate a joint account with local governments.
However, Justice Emmanuel Agim, who led a seven-member panel of justices, said local government allocation should be paid directly to a separate account belonging to each local government.
Reacting, Abdulrahman, who had a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa on Friday, said this development is a significant relief for governors.
However, the Kwara State governor said he and his counterparts would convene next week to discuss the decision and formulate a response.
According to him, many are unaware of the challenges faced by state governors, particularly in terms of rescuing Local Government Areas.
“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 expend in bailing out local governments, and that’s the issue there,” the NGF Chairman told State House Correspondents.
The governor of Kwara discussed the impact of the apex court ruling on his state, emphasizing that it would require the local governments to take charge of managing their own affairs, particularly in terms of paying salaries to employees and traditional leaders.
He said, “It’s not going to affect Kwara State. We’ve never tampered with local government funds. So it’s going to continue. What the local governments have to do is manage themselves, especially with the oncoming minimum wage, to manage their affairs and make sure salaries are paid, traditional rulers get their 5%, and those are the main issues.
“Like I said, we haven’t seen the enrollment of the court order and so we really don’t know what is in there.
“The Forum will meet next Wednesday, to look at the issue wholly and then come up with a resolution on that.”
