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Governors have been acting tongue-in-cheek in their reactions to last Thursday’s verdict of the supreme court, which stripped them of their suffocating grip over the money meant for local governments in the country. As a collective, the governors unreservedly endorsed the judgement.
It may be argued that it is customary in our clime for an opposition governor to toe a different path from that of the president from a different party and this may be correct. However, the opposition of state governors to local council financial autonomy has never been in doubt. It has always been vainly concealed.
The supreme court’s verdict was very emphatic and unequivocal. All the reliefs sought by the FG were granted. The apex court ordered direct payment of council allocations, saying the 774 local councils in the federation should manage their funds without interference or deduction from any quarter. According to the apex court, it is unconstitutional for state governors to retain and utilise LG statutory allocations paid through them.
Many would recall the issue of the creation of 37 additional local governments in Lagos state during which he dragged the federal government to the supreme court when President Obasanjo stopped the federal allocation to the state. In its ruling, the supreme court okayed the process leading to the creation of the councils and described the creation of the 37 new councils as legal, but declared them as inchoate because they had not been listed in the constitution as LGAs.
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