*Set up committee to review ruling
By Francesca Hangeior.
The governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde has said that his administration will ensure that residents do not suffer from the supreme court verdict on financial autonomy for LGAs.
Makinde who was speaking during a meeting with LG stakeholders in Ibadan, the state capital said, the apex court’s judgment has created a lacuna.
Section 162(6) of the 1999 Constitution states that “each state shall maintain a specific 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”.
On Thursday, the supreme court ruled that the federal government should henceforth pay allocations directly to LG councils.
The seven-member panel of justices held that state governments have continued to abuse their powers by retaining and using the funds meant for LGAs.
The apex court also ordered the federal government to withhold allocations of LGAs governed by unelected officials.
In a statement, Sulaimon Olanrewaju, special adviser on media to Makinde, said the governor convened the meeting to discuss the challenges facing the LGAs, develop solutions, and ensure a seamless implementation of the judgment.
“I called this meeting because I felt that even though we have not seen the certified true copy (CTC) of the judgment of the supreme court, we have to be proactive and discuss the decision of the supreme court as it concerns the financial autonomy of the local government councils because I believe a lacuna has been created between the decision and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that we all swore to uphold,” Makinde said.
“The law is the law and when there is a conflict, yes, we should go to the court.
“But it behoves us to look for our own homegrown solutions that can ensure that we have transparency and that our people do not suffer. This is because when two elephants are fighting, it is the grass that will suffer.
“I am saying this because Oyo state will get out of this even stronger. We are people that know what is good for our people.
“Before we came in, leave bonuses were last paid in 2017 and we have paid for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. The primary healthcare facilities and inner roads were all in bad shape.
“But we have been working collaboratively with the LGs to deliver dividends of democracy to our people.
“We were able to clear those salary arrears. We paid N18bn in pension and gratuities over this period. We upgraded about 209 PHCs, equipped about 264, and completed 60 model schools.
“We constructed and renovated hundreds of primary school classrooms and fixed some of our roads.
“But there are still challenges that we have to address. We still have a backlog of gratuities and pensions.
“The local governments owe about N55bn in pension and gratuities. We are developing infrastructure that would push the economy and raise the living standard of our people and push their economy towards sustainable goals.”
Representatives of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), and ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), attended the meeting.
At the meeting, the governor set up two committees to review the supreme court judgment and suggest recommendations for implementation.