Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) has applauded Supreme Court judgment granting financial autonomy to Local Government Areas (LGA).
Gatekeepers News reports that the association described the development as birth of a new democracy in the nation.
Supreme Court, on Thursday, noted that it was unconstitutional for state Governors to hold funds allocated for local government administrations.
Presiding judge of the seven-man panel, Justice Emmanuel Agim ruled that the 774 local government councils in the nation should personally manage their funds.
In addition, the Supreme Court ordered Accountant General of the federation to only pay allocated LGA funds to LGAs with democratically elected chairmen and councilors only.
Reacting to the judgment during a telephone interview with NAN on Thursday, ALGON Board of Trustees Secretary, Chief Chukwudi Ezinwa asserted that the judgement was a birth of a new democracy in Nigeria.
He noted that a lot of atrocities had been committed by some state governors that had stampeded Local Government from carrying out its operations.
Ezinwa said, “If we get it right at the local level, Nigeria would be great again as everyone belong to local government even the governors, president and other Nigerians.”
According to the secretary, once duties are carried out correctly at local government level, states will have less work to do.
He added, “To us at ALGON, we thank God and commend the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) for taking the bull by the horn and his political will power to pursue the case to the Supreme Court.”
“A lot of attorneys -general had come and gone but lacked courage to go ahead to make sure that local government was salvaged from the hands of governors.”
“We equally thank the President Bola Tinubu for proving to Nigerians that he is a president with courage and that his Renewed Hope Agenda was for real as well as showing that he wants to correct all the wrongs.”
The secretary further called for full implementation of the judgment as there were a lot of judgments in the country that were not adhered to.
He continued, “We encourage the president, Federal Republic of Nigeria to make sure that this judgement is implemented.”
“If implemented and local government is given autonomy, there will be a lot of change; insecurity and infrastructural decay will be handled.”
A Human Rights Lawyer, Desmond Kakaan noted that the constitution never accepted Caretaker Committee adopted by the Governors but that of elected Local Government Chairmen.
He added that it was wrong for state governments to give local government chairmen a paltry sum of their money to run the affairs of Council Areas.
While applauding Fagbemi’s boldness, Kakaan noted that the suit was brought by him to the Supreme Court for interpretation.
Kakaan said, “I know it was in agreement with Mr President as well as the president’s experience when he was governor of Lagos State and created more local governments and President Olusegun Obasanjo refused to release funds for them.”
“With this judgement, people can now hold Local Government Chairmen accountable and a lot of infrastructural development will be witnessed at the local level.”
