The federal government, under President Bola Tinubu’s administration, is trying to bring local government autonomy to fusion despite pushback from state governors.
The administration received major boost in its drive to achieve local government autonomy following Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday, July 11.
Okanlawon Gaffar, a legal practitioner, spoke on the legal tussle between the federal government and the 36 governors in Nigeria before the Supreme Court in an interview.
FG fights for local government autonomy
The federal government had sought the autonomy of the local government at the apex court, but the governors have been seen pushing back on the move as they have filed a defence.
In his analysis, Gaffar revealed that two things are involved in the matter.
He said:
“Number one, our so-called federalism is still not at the level that it should be if there is pushback against having independent and strong local governments.
“I am not surprised that Tinubu is pushing for local government autonomy, considering that when he was the governor of Lagos state, he took the federal government under Olusegun Obasanjo to court after he established local council development areas, which the federal government was against.
“It was his own way of decentralising the system so that there would be more local governments that would directly affect the people. We have seen the same [playing out now] where he (Tinubu) is trying to push for an autonomous local government, but the pushback from the governors goes on to show how the local government system is very weak, and it is basically, in most cases, a side arm of the state government.
“Many states don’t even conduct local government elections. In most cases, they are just chairmen who are handpicked by state governors. So, state governments have subsumed the system, and that is one thing the Tinubu administration is trying to correct.”
Local government autonomy: Politics at play
The legal practitioner maintained that the second factor is that state governments play politics to control the local government.
He said:
“Secondly, we have also seen politics in play by state governments, who feel that their power would be whittled down if they were not directly in control of the local government. This is why we have seen them fight so much to continue controlling the politics, finance, and government of the councils.
“An independent local government would not take over the power of the state governments. However, many governors’ ability to maintain control over the state starts from being able to directly control the local government, and we have seen that play out in Rivers State, where Fubara sacked all the chairmen of the local governments and appointed his own stooges.
“It is a floor on our current system. Until we get it right, we can have an autonomous, independent local government that is the closest arms of government to the people, understands the people at the grassroots level, and is able to deliver on the individual needs of those small communities.”
