We need to give the presidency a pat on the back for initiating this long overdue legal tussle, which no President before Tinubu had attempted.
I commend the presidency for this resort to the path of civility, law and order. Nigeria's democracy will become better strengthened by the outcome of the legal process. By this bold choice of recourse to the path of legality, President Tinubu has shown a good example that the courts are the last hope of the downtrodden, in this case, the federal government.
Recently, the Federal Government took the 36 governors to the Supreme Court for illegally withholding funds meant for local governments in their jurisdiction in contravention of Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended. The relevant section stipulates that the system of local government by democratically elected local government councils is guaranteed under the Constitution.
It is clear that non-democratically constituted local governments are an aberration, which deserve no funding from the Federal Government. Since the beginning of this democratisation process, state governments have not been relating to local government authorities with the respect and dignity deserving of the third tier level of governance. First, state governments have been known to be rather arbitrary, rather than constitutional, in granting statutory allocations to local governments, as they fall due. Second, elections into local governments have rarely been held, as they fall due. In consequence, caretaker committees have been the norms, rather the exceptions that they ought to be in local administration. Under this condition, it is convenient for local governments to resort to scapegoating in defending their dysfunctionality.
I wonder what the reason could be why the presidency has sought legal remedy to rescue local governments from the jugulars of the state governments. Has dialogue failed? The APC-led Federal Government controls 20 states, can wield the big stick, and employ the party machine to whip recalcitrant governors to queue behind it. Hence, why this 'unconventional' path to governance? Is it a signal of the failure of party discipline?
The presidency must have reasoned that it is now time to redirect attention to governors and their irresponsible acts in crippling local governments. There are three centres of government power in Nigeria, and if each centre functions effectively, then the Federal Government will certainly be less blame worthy.
I wish to hazard some guesses. Since, regardless of the political party in power, the presidency has come under incessant attacks by Nigerians, with regard to development issues in the country, all eyes are on the person of the president. Generally, governors are hardly reckoned with in explaining Nigeria's predicament with underdevelopment. Local government chairmen are perceived as helpless and at the beck and call of governors, and indeed the chairmen are errand boys of the governors. The presidency must have reasoned that it is now time to redirect attention to governors and their irresponsible acts in crippling local governments. There are three centres of government power in Nigeria, and if each centre functions effectively, then the Federal Government will certainly be less blame worthy.
Third, as we know, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, when he was governor of Lagos State, fought hard at the Supreme Court, through the state's then Attorney General, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to assert the authority of the then Lagos State government to create additional local governments in the state. The apex court ruled in favour of the state government and it became the lot of the late President Umaru Yar'Adua to release the state's withheld funds, under President Olusegun Obasanjo, in deference to the verdict of the Supreme Court.
We need to give the presidency a pat on the back for initiating this long overdue legal tussle, which no President before Tinubu had attempted.
If the presidency wins this new celebrated case against the 36 governors, then local governments in the country will be able to receive their funds directly from the Federal Government and then can henceforth be blamed for non-performance. The presidency and the governors may then become less of cynosures of attention. Nigerians will become the ultimate beneficiaries of this legal initiative...
This is a far superior response than the resort to self-remedy for which former President Obasanjo was castigated when his administration seized the funds for local governments in Lagos, after the then Governor Tinubu created additional local council development authorities in the state.
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If the presidency wins this new celebrated case against the 36 governors, then local governments in the country will be able to receive their funds directly from the Federal Government and then can henceforth be blamed for non-performance. The presidency and the governors may then become less of cynosures of attention. Nigerians will become the ultimate beneficiaries of this legal initiative, as governments at all levels will become more competitive and possibly more responsible.
I commend the presidency for this resort to the path of civility, law and order. Nigeria's democracy will become better strengthened by the outcome of the legal process. By this bold choice of recourse to the path of legality, President Tinubu has shown a good example that the courts are the last hope of the downtrodden, in this case, the federal government.
Lai Olurode, a retired professor of Sociology was a former INEC National Commissioner.
