Judiciary
A Port Harcourt-based Legal Practitioner, Mr Ernest Obasi, has advised State Governments to take last Thursday’s Supreme Court judgment on Local Government (LG) Financial Autonomy in good faith.
Obasi gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt on Monday.
He said that with the judgment, the state Houses of Assembly were expected to quickly amend relevant sections of their LG Laws that were at variance with the judgment.
According to him, the step is important since the constitution allows the state to play supervisory role over LG councils.
He said that amending the council laws would enable the State Government to suspend any council Chairman that failed to comply with the extant law and replace him with his vice.
Obasi said that the judgment did not take away the power from the state Independent Electoral Commissions to conduct council elections.
He said that the verdict of the nation’s apex court would be counted among the major legacies of President Bola Tinubu, saying his political will made the difference.
He said that the letters of the judgment made it difficult for state governors to manipulate the 1999 Constitution to superintend over councils’ Federal Allocations under any guise.
Obasi described LG as a very strategic tier of government that should be allowed to operate independently to enable the citizens to enjoy its full benefits.
“The 1999 Constitution as amended does not at any time see LG as an appendage of the State Government but an independent entity.
“This is why we have three tiers of government but due to sheer bad governance, that has not happened,’’ he said.
Obasi further said that the judgment nullified the LG laws made by the state legislatures to the extent of their inconsistency with the constitution.
“The judgment simply said that the funds for LG has to be paid directly to democratically elected office holders and that has settled the problem permanently,’’ he said.
He said that he expected the State Governments to look at their laws comply with the Supreme Court judgment in order not to subject their councils and workers to avoidable sufferings (NAN)
A.I
July 16, 2024 @ 06:23 GMT|
Tags: Local Government (LG) Financial Autonomy Mr Ernest Obasi
