The Supreme Court, in its judgment of July 11, 2024, ordered that local government areas, LGAs’ allocations should be paid directly to them. That happened after the Federal Government dragged state governors to the apex court, claiming that they were short-changing LGAs as the allocations paid through states were not getting to them.
Seven months later, the council areas are yet to receive their monthly allocation directly from the Federation Account. In this interview, the National Publicity Secretary and Plateau State Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, Honourable Hamisu Anani, says that the Supreme Court judgment is yet to be complied with.
Anani, who is also the Chairman of Wase Local Government Area of Plateau State, says that the 23 per cent allocation to LGAs is paltry and affects development at the grassroots level. He also speaks on some other matters affecting local government administration.
Have local government areas started receiving their allocations directly from the Federation Account as directed by the Supreme Court?
Also in this regard, ALGON is not the implementing body. We have the Accountant General’s Office, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the other bodies that ensure implementation of this ruling. However, there is a committee working seriously on these issues. There are T’s to be crossed and I’s to be dotted to ensure that this thing is done. And I think the committee has finished its work. So we are just waiting for the implementation.
And also, it is the wish of everybody, the masses, chairmen, governors, and the Federal Government, the President specifically, to see that local governments’ financial autonomy is implemented. It is the wish of everyone in government to see that development comes through and the Supreme Court judgment was based on development, to ensure that democracy dividends go down to the grassroots. There is also the issue of sustainability. Actually what we need is sustainability.
With the judgment, there are so many things that we need to address before even the implementation, we’re looking forward to doing them so that all the three tiers of government would work hand-in-hand to guarantee sustainability. At the state level, there are so many organizations that are funded by local governments. Primary healthcare is funded by local governments, Universal Basic Education Council, UBEC, is funded by local governments. There are first line charges within the states that are funded by local governments.
The second line charges are also funded by local governments. So we have to look at them properly so that once implementation of financial autonomy starts, there must be sustainability. We need to sort out those things that will serve as obstacles. So, all of us are in the same position to ensure that implementation goes well for sustainability.
Are you saying that despite the Supreme Court judgment, local government areas have not started receiving allocation directly from the Federation Account?
No local government has started receiving allocation directly.
How soon are you expecting that?
We are expecting it possibly this month, as they said the committee has done its work and has submitted its report, so, definitely the implementation will soon start.
One ugly trend that has been repeating itself over time is the issue of state governors ‘using’ councilors and state assembly to remove local government chairmen. Recently, one or two local government chairmen were impeached in Edo State. How is ALGON handling this issue?
This is a constitutional issue and we have to look at it very well. The ruling of the Supreme Court mentioned specifically three major things. A local government chairman cannot just go like that, as the governor just announced that he should go as was the case before. It is a constitutional matter. If any local government chairman is doing well, councilors don’t have any reason to impeach him.
The Supreme Court judgment said that elections should be done at the local government level, and then it talked about financial autonomy to the local government.
However, there are other things that should be looked into in the constitution like the issue of Joint Allocation Account Committee between the states and the local government areas. JAAC is a constitutional matter, it is still there in the constitution. So there are so many things to be done. That’s why I said that this committee has done well in looking at these matters before coming up and definitely at the end, all these things will be looked into.
Is the issue of JAAC not based on individual states?
No, it is a constitutional matter, it is still there in the constitution; it needs to be reviewed.
What do you think would be the advantage if local government areas begin to get their allocation directly from the Federation Account?
It will be a great and huge advantage to the people down there because, definitely, there’s going to be real development at the grassroots. Then, when elections come up, it will be just the people at the local government that should look for the right people to be elected.
Once you are lucky to have a right person as the chairman, so many advantages would take place at the level. Another important thing is that, we at the local government level are crying out loud over the sharing formula of the federal allocation. The sharing formula of revenue is still another thing.
If we really, really want the local government, which is the nearest arm of government to the people at the grassroots to develop, if we are really interested in development at that level, we can’t obtain just 23 percent for 774 local governments as against 40 something percent for the Federal Government.
Development should come from the grassroots, and the sharing formula should increase. We are soliciting for it to be looked into, so that we would develop the grassroots.
Is the present sharing formula affecting development at the local government level?
Definitely, it is a serious hindrance. If really we want development to operate down up and, not up down, the sharing formula should change. The 23 per cent for the local government is too poor and too small.
What are the plans of ALGON against states that are yet to conduct local government elections?
Actually, we have over 30 states that have conducted their elections successfully, and in our NEC (National Executive Council) meeting in Katsina last month, we urged the states that are yet to conduct elections to do so. As ALGON, we gave them specific advice on how to conduct elections as they are supposed to be in line with the Supreme Court judgment. Though we are not the implementing body, the state governors are, and we urged them to try as much as possible to conduct elections to comply with the judgment of the Supreme Court in that regard.
Can you mention the states that are yet to conduct council polls?
We have about six states that are yet to comply but I cannot name the states now.
