By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

The Pan Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, has expressed strong disapproval of the recent Supreme Court decision that affirmed fiscal autonomy for local government areas in Nigeria.

In a press statement released in Akure and signed by its leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, and National Publicity Secretary, Prince Justice Faloye, the group described the verdict as harmful to the structure of the Nigerian state.

According to the statement, Afenifere believes that the Supreme Court’s ruling undermines the federalism structure of Nigeria by promoting a unitary system through the back door. The group argues that true federalism should allow states to exercise control over their local government areas, including financial matters, to ensure that local governance is tailored to the unique needs of each state. The statement declared

The statement declared that “Afenifere views the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case filed by the Federal Government on the so-called Local Government autonomy as sheer judicial conspiracy in cahoots with the Tinubu administration against the Nigerian state and its foundational principles of federalism.

“Rather than interpret the constitution to uphold its elementary but overriding federal principle which recognises only a two-tier federal structure of the central government and federating states, the Supreme Court played to the gallery and wittingly allowed itself a most retrogessive declaration that the power of the government is portioned into three arms of government, the federal, the state and the local government. “For the avoidance of any doubt, Afenifere makes bold to say that in line with its negotiated basis of existence, Nigeria is a “Federation consisting of States and a Federal Capital Territory”. as affirmed by Section 2 (2) of the 1999 constitution. “While Afenifere frowns at corruption and misuse of public funds at levels of government, it condemns in most unmistaken terms the subjugation of the states and its constitutional roles including the Local Government system to the whims and caprices of the federal government by any means including obvious manipulation of the federation account as in the present case.

“The 1999 constitution, which in spite of its flaws, gives life and power to the Supreme Court provides in Section 162 and particularly subsection (6) that “each state shall maintain a special account to be called “State Joint Local Government Account” into which shall be paid all allocations to the local government councils of the state from the Federation Account and from the Government of the state.

“Against this unambiguous provision the Supreme Court held that “demands of justice requires a progressive interpretation of the law.

“It is the position of this court that the federation can pay Local Government allocations to the Local Government directly or pay them through the states. “In this case, since paying them through states has not worked, justice of this case demands that Local Government allocations from the federation account should henceforth be paid directly to the Local Governments .

“Contrary to this invented alternative routes, Section 162 of the Constitution is not ambivalent about the process and route through which “all allocations to the local government councils of the state from the Federation Account and from the Government of the state” shall become payable to the Councils. “In other words, the interpretation does not require a voyage into jurisprudential sophistry leading to the absurdity of deliberate judicial amendment of the grundnorm.

“By wittingly or inadvertently equating the Nigerian Federation with the Federal Government in the erroneous belief that both expressions are used interchangeably, such that the President may withold funds to the credit of the Local Governments from the Federation Account, under the guise of having no democratically elected officials, which is obviously subject to the interpretation by the Federal Government.

“The apex court has not only done incalculable injury to the Nigerian state, it has lent itself to setting aside its precedent in the hallowed judgment against the President Obasanjo administration withholding funds to the credit of Local Governments in Lagos State even when the Supreme Court agreed that the Local Council Development Authorities (LCDA) created by then Governor Tinubu were inchoate and fell short of constitutional requirements.

“It is becoming stridently eloquent that with just over a year of its inauguration, the Tinubu government, more than even the military administrations, is uuncannily determined to unitarise the Nigerian Federation. “Part of the unitary package is the creation of the Ministry of Livestock Development which is the audacious euphemism for the re-introduction of Cattle Colony, RUGA and those other policies by which the Buhari administration sought to appropriate lands in the states contrary to the provisions of the Land Use Act and the Constitution which vest land in the state in the Governor in trust for the people. “Afenifere insists that the way forward for Nigeria is not the confusing rudderless tinkering but holistic restructuring of the polity to re-enact the fundamental principles of true federalism as agreed by the founding fathers. “This includes the fact that the Local Government system is an exclusive preserve of the states, either by direct constitutional provisions or residual powers in a federation.”