Nigerian governors are laws unto themselves! They deliberately stall development, even at the most critical level: the local governments. And that is because they are above the laws of the land, or we allow them to think so. They sit on the local governments’ funds despite a Supreme Court judgment, portraying Nigeria as a lawless country. The Nigerian Constitution is very clear on the roles of the local government. And the governors pledged to uphold the Constitution.
The NBA, the Judiciary and even the federal government seem helpless, as nobody can accuse the governors of contempt of court and send those who are guilty to jail. Political autonomy is enhanced by financial autonomy, implying that the federal government and the judiciary, as well as the legislature at the centre, have major roles to play in this task of deepening democracy.
Every country running democratic governance tries to run tiers of government that can bring development to the grassroots where citizens’ basic needs can be identified and attended to easily. Development that starts from the grassroots is usually more inclusive than any that begins at a higher level of government. Actually, the basic needs of citizens- education, health, and shelter are more easily and better attended to or supplied at the local government level.
Financial autonomy for the local government has a lot of advantages. It has a significant impact on development in rural or semi-urban areas, as it promotes faster programme and project execution by cutting out bureaucratic delays in decision-making and funding. It enhances rapid growth and development at the grassroots level. The local leaders actually know the needs of people or their communities better than the government at the state level. What is the business of the state government with local market development, refuse disposal, commissioning of primary school buildings, motor park development, primary health centre building, and administration? For lack of development at the state level, we do see a governor commissioning two-kilometre rural or local roads! Very ridiculous.
Financial accountability is improved as the grassroots people can easily trace development or lack of it to their chairmen and thus hold them accountable, unlike when everything is concentrated at the state level. It is easier for state governors to ask the people to hold their local government leadership accountable, just as the President is currently asking Nigerians to hold their governors accountable for the current improved federal allocations to the States. Such direct funding can promote economic empowerment and boost the rural economy. Primary school teachers, rural health workers, contractors and others are paid on time for jobs done, thus enjoying financial empowerment and allowing money to perform its primary and secondary functions appropriately to the benefit of the grassroots economy. That act also strengthens democracy as it reduces dependency of local activities on the State and promotes independent leadership at the grassroots level.
Of course, it transfers the risk of corruption to the local level, but this can be easily traced and dealt with. The fear of such detection can limit the depth of corruptive practices, particularly if it has been able to awaken the consciousness of the grassroots people to resource management. It is important to strengthen or deepen democracy and promote federalism in Nigeria, and one of the ways is to allow each tier of government to perform its functions independently.
We recall that the federal government, through the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court in May 2024 against all the State governors for financial autonomy for the local government. The judgement was delivered in favour of the 774 local government councils on July 11, 2024. The core demand of the case was direct payment of statutory allocations from the Federation Account to the local governments and an end to the arbitrary dissolution of elected local Councils by governors.
The Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to route the local government funds through a joint local government account with the state and barred the governors from dissolving democratically elected local government administrations, replacing them with caretaker committees. In addition, the Supreme Court prohibits States that fail to obey the judgement from receiving funds meant for the local governments from the federation account. The judgement empowered the local government to independently manage their finances, execute local projects, and fulfil their constitutional responsibilities.
The judgement is yet to be fully implemented, even two years later. Although the federal government has been pushing for absolute financial and political separation, observations and reports show that many state governors still stick to the old order of significant control over the council funds. The behaviour of the stakeholders in the matter is as if there is no judgment over the issue and therefore no need to enforce the judgment. There is a need for some amendments to the provision of the law for clarity in some areas of the law. That is why some Civil society groups and policy stakeholders are asking for outright constitutional amendments to expunge joint account provisions and enforce direct electronic transfers to local treasuries. This needs to be carried out to actually give effect to the Supreme Court judgement.
The state governments that failed to implement the judgement do so for lack of understanding of the benefits derivable therefrom or for deliberate subjugation of local government chairmen to their control, which is undemocratic. We can borrow an example from Ogun State where the then Chairman of Ijebu-East Local Government, Wale Adedayo, was suspended in August 2023 and subsequently impeached for accusing the state Governor, Dapo Abiodun, of withholding statutory federal allocations and ecological funds of the local governments. The other local government chairmen ended up prostrating to the governor to seek forgiveness for the challenge by one of them. So, some of the state governors use the control of funds to subjugate the local government leadership to their whims and caprices, which does not promote democracy and development.
The current situation seems to portray governance in Nigeria as undemocratic and lack of rule of law. If a Supreme Court judgement can be ignored with impunity, it implies that politics in Nigeria is above the laws that govern the country. Some governors have actually turned themselves into emperors and imposed on the lower-level government what they won’t accept from the government above them – the federal government. That is not the way to deepen democracy.
