By Chibuike Nwabuko
ABUJA FCT – Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser Information and Strategy to President Tinubu has stated that the emasculation of the local councils for 25 years by State Governors has been the root of the poverty and insecurity we have all over our country.
He therefore urged State Governors not to see the Supreme Court judgment granting financial autonomy to the local councils as an affront.
Precise Post recalls that his advise is coming barely twenty-four hours after Supreme Court ruled that all federal funds for local government councils should be paid directly into their (local governments) accounts.
Reacting through his X account, Onanuga stressed that it is in the best interest of the of the Governors to ensure that the judgment is fully implemented in their domains. Adding that the local council is a very important third tier of government, and its emasculation by the governors in the last 25 years has been at the root of the poverty and insecurity we have all over our country.
“The governors must allow the councils to breathe and flourish again,”he added.
Further recall that Justice Emmanuel Agim, who led a seven-member panel of justices, delivered the judgment in a suit filed by the federal government against the 36 state governors.
According to the judgment, henceforth, no more payments of local government area allocations to state government accounts. The court also prohibited the governors from receiving, tampering with, or withholding funds meant for local governments.
Furthermore, the court barred the governors from dissolving democratically elected officials for local governments and deemed such actions a breach of the 1999 Constitution.
The federal government had approached the Supreme Court with a suit seeking to compel the governors of the 36 federating states to grant full autonomy to local governments in their domains. The suit, marked SC/CV/343/2024, was filed by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), on behalf of the Federal Government.
The Federal Government accused the state governors of gross misconduct and abuse of power in its suit, which was based on 27 grounds. In the originating summons, the FG prayed the Supreme Court to make an order stating that funds standing to the credit of local governments from the Federation Account should be paid directly to the local governments rather than through the state governments.
The justice minister also requested an order restraining governors, their agents, and privies from receiving, spending, or tampering with funds released from the Federation Account for the benefit of local governments when no democratically elected local government system is in place in the states.
In addition, the Federal Government sought an order stopping governors from constituting caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments, contrary to the constitutionally recognized and guaranteed democratic system.
