In a groundbreaking lawsuit against state governors, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, has filed a suit seeking complete autonomy for local government areas across the country.
The suit specifically requests the court to issue an order that prohibits state governors from unilaterally, arbitrarily, and unlawfully dissolving democratically elected local government leaders.
The governors of the 36 states have been sued through their respective attorneys general.
Furthermore, the suit seeks an order that allows funds held in the credits of local governments to be directly channeled to them from the federation account, in accordance with the provisions of the constitution, as opposed to the alleged unlawful joint accounts created by the governors.
The Federal Government also prays the Supreme Court for an order to prevent governors from constituting caretaker committees to govern local governments, which goes against the constitutionally recognized and guaranteed democratic system.
Additionally, an injunction is sought to restrain the governors, their agents, and privies from receiving, spending, or tampering with funds allocated from the federation account for the benefit of local governments in the absence of a democratically elected local government system.
In the 27 grounds presented to support the suit, the Federal Government argues that Nigeria, as a federation, was established by the 1999 Constitution, with the president as the head of the federal executive arm, bound by an oath to uphold and give effect to the provisions of the constitution.
The Federal Government asserts that the governors represent the component states of the federation, with executive governors who have also sworn to uphold the constitution at all times.
The constitution of Nigeria recognizes federal, state, and local governments as the three tiers of government, and these tiers draw funds for their operation and functioning from the federation account established by the constitution.
The suit emphasizes that, as per the constitution, there must be a democratically elected local government system, and no other system of governance at the local government level is provided for. It further states that the governors have failed to establish a democratically elected local government system, even where no state of emergency has been declared to warrant the suspension of democratic institutions in the state.
This failure is seen as a deliberate subversion of the 1999 constitution, which both the governors and the president have sworn to uphold. Despite efforts to compel the governors to comply with the constitutional requirement of establishing a democratically elected local government system, no positive outcome has been achieved.
Continuing to disburse funds from the federation account to governors for non-existing democratically elected local governments undermines the sanctity of the 1999 constitution.
In light of the constitutional violations, the federal government argues that it is not obligated, under section 162 of the constitution, to allocate any state funds to the credit of local governments where no democratically elected local government is in place.
