#LeadershipTalks with Dr.Muiz Banire. Write On LG Autonomy

  Distinguished readers, you are welcome to our weekly leadership discourse. Today, I am temporarily interrogating the latest decision of the Supreme Court on the local government autonomy. I used the adjective “temporary” to indicate that whatever I am saying is subject to my reading of the full judgment of the court. I am presently coming from the angle of the news report and the minority judgment that I have largely read. To a large extent, the judgment seems to have laid to rest the issue of tiers of government in Nigeria. It is now settled that there are three tiers. To this extent alone, it is deductible that autonomy of the local government can be taken for granted. In the light of that, it is surplausage to start considering the extent of the independence of the various local governments. However, this can only be said to be theoretically correct in view of the Nigerian constitutional dictates on the existence of the local governments. By way of an aberration, the Nigerian Constitution, by section 7 thereof, would appear to have impaired the autonomy that ought to naturally flow from the existence of local government as a tier of government. The said provision vested in the state legislatures the competence to determine the structure and manner of administration of the local government. It is under this cloak that the legislatures hide to perpetrate all manner of iniquities vis-a-vis the local governments. For instance, the legislature determines the tenure of their administration; they design the shape and form as well as expenditure patterns, regardless of the fact that the local governments have their own legislature. This is the present quagmire faced in the administration of the local governments in Nigeria due to this constitutional deformity. This absurdity is what the latest decision seeks to remedy. In doing this, several legal practitioners have said that the apex court outstepped its competence by engaging in legislative activity in contravention of section 4 of the constitution that confers on the National Assembly such power. I honestly will seem to concur with the observation. Undoubtedly, the end of the decision is desirable as pronounced but the route seems to obfuscate the law. That explains why the decision is welcomed by most Nigerians. The deviation of the dissenting judgement is to this extent. It is my candid view that the same conclusion and result reached by the apex court would have been attained by simply deciding as a court of policy, which the apex court is, as against a court of law. Having reached that conclusion, it now behoves the executive and the legislature to promptly trigger the process of constitutional amendment to reflect the conclusion reached by the apex court with clarity