Kudos to Supreme Court over judgement on local gov’t autonomy ~ by Godson Moneke

I read with great admiration and satisfaction, the Nigerian Supreme Court decision on local government autonomy. I must salute the president, Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu and the Attorney General of the federation and Minister of Justice for mustering the courage which was lacking in previous administrations to do the right thing.

This fourth republic has been on for more than 25 years old, but this is the first time that a government has taken a decisive and bold step to protect and strengthen the third tier of government and the closest to the people. The constitution is very clear that the system of local government administration should be by democratic means.

It follows that if another provision of the same constitution makes it difficult to achieve the stated objective, the Supreme Court has to weigh in. This is exactly what it has just done by this decision as a court of policy.

The author, Godson O. Moneke

History will chronicle the noble role played by these men of the highest bench in the land in halting the excesses of the governors which have negatively impacted developments at the grassroots.

Maximization of the welfare of the people is the prime purpose of government and this what the federal government has done in initiating this laudable court action.

State governors who are crying blue murder on this judgement should be bold enough to tell the country how they have operated the State-Local government Joint Account under the existing dispensation.

Many state governments refuse to organize local government elections because they want to have their hands in the tills of the money meant for local governments in their respective states. They fear that elected local governments would challenge their excesses and illegalities along with their meddlesomeness in their local governments.

That past administrations and the Attorneys General of the federation tolerated these excesses for this long, feigning helplessness is nothing other than complicity. It took President Bola Tinubu and his Attorney General’s audaciousness to confront this monster.

God would bless the two for this singular act. Those who still complain about Tinubu’s victory at the polls should see this as a reason to rally round him. You may not realize the import of this until you begin to witness the massive developments in your respective local governments.

I once wrote to a former Minister of Finance to stop funding unelected local governments, but she ignored me. I hope that the current Minister of Finance would do the needful now that the Supreme Court has weighed in.

Another area where urgency is required in the local government system is in the current practice of operating the system with unelected personnel. It is wrong for the federation account to fund unelected local government administrations in a democratic dispensation.

I do not see anything wrong with the existence of the State Independent Electoral Commissions just as I do not see anything wrong with INEC once the right people are in charge. What is required is a strong political party system which unfortunately does not exist at the moment.

I believe that it is possible to have an uncompromised elected local government system no matter who organizes and superintends over the elections. What is required is for the right thing to be done. The use of unelected caretaker committees to run the local government systems in Nigeria should be rejected.

Let me finally say that I disagree with the argument of former governor James Ibori on this matter. The Doctrine of Necessity does not support his argument.

If the erstwhile system created the loopholes that were exploited by governors to loot local government funds, what is required is a mechanism to streamline the democratic content of the constitution to make it supreme. This is exactly what the Supreme Court has done. His talk about constitutional amendments is balderdash.

Once again, I commend all who made this possible. You may not know what you did for Nigeria by this.

Godson O. Moneke, a registered quantity surveyor, economist, sociologist, administrator and sociopolitical advocate wrote from Abuja. Readers are permitted to share.

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