“Soludo’s position conflicts with President Tinubu’s legacy of restoring the quintessence of the local government system in Nigeria’s federalism.” —Ebuka Onyekwelu
On Tuesday, the Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, held a press conference to address concerns over the Anambra State Local Government Administration Law 2024, recently passed by the Anambra State House of Assembly. Only two weeks ago, the Governor superintended over a sham local government election in which he used the illegal faction of his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance – APGA- to prosecute and return all his previously appointed transition committee members in the 21 LGAs of the State.
About a month before the local government election, the governor introduced suspicious amendments to the Anambra State Electoral Law 2024, which was amended at least three different times before the election. These events reveal Governor Soludo’s original intent on local government autonomy from all possible standpoints. After the judgment of the Supreme Court, Soludo hailed the ruling, calling it “great and final”. Three months later, he went to the House of Assembly with a bill which is now a law, to wholly and entirely derail and stampede local government autonomy in Anambra State.
Therefore, one can guess that the Supreme Court’s verdict placed a demand on Soludo to maintain his cause against local government autonomy through a means that at least looks creative. But his action is in direct confrontation with President Bola Tinubu government’s effort that defined the status of local government in Nigeria, which aimed to strengthen local government administration in the country. This attempt by Governor Soludo is also an assault on the Supreme Court, with the potential of recruiting other governors addicted to local government funds, to become defiant against the position of the Nigeria Constitution on local government autonomy as defined by the Supreme Court in its ruling.
It is important to note that before Soludo’s election in 2021, he promised to conduct a local government election within his first six months in office. However, on March 17th, 2022 while he was reading his acceptance speech after he was sworn in as Anambra State Governor, Soludo then said that the local government election would be held within his two years in office. On September 1, 2023, Governor Soludo appeared on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily and explained why local government autonomy is a farce and cannot work. I remember with clarity watching Governor Soludo trying hard to explain to Chamberlin and the team at Sunrise Daily, why the states must oversee the destiny of local governments and determine their fate. This was about a year before the contentious Anambra State Local Government Administration Law was introduced to the Anambra State House of Assembly by the Governor. But why this is even more interesting is that the Supreme Court’s ruling had already put an end to the arguments about local government autonomy and its constitutionality or if states should micromanage local government funds, under spurious pretenses.
Delivering the judgment on local government autonomy brought by Tinubu’s led Federal Government, Justice Emmanuel Agim said that “The Constitution did not give States any right or interest in the allocations to a Local Government Council from the Federation Account.” As if this was not enough, Justice Agim emphasized that “This Court has, in several decisions, declared as unconstitutional and illegal any interference by the State Government or Governor of a State with the independent functioning of the local government councils.” This Supreme Court judgment has been hailed as a landmark decision in Nigeria’s troubled federalism. Among others, the ruling resolved an age-long structural challenge. Governors had relied on the provision for joint account between States and Local Governments to continue to harass and abuse local governments, completely denying them their right to their allocation from the Federation Account. To do this, they use transition committees to run the local government. It is the same template that Soludo used, and even the recent local government election in Anambra State is not more than the appointment of a transition committee by the governor. This is what Governor Soludo wants to continue, with a law that dictates that local government funds be pulled together in Anambra State. A law that demands 20% of federal allocation from Anambra’s 21 local governments. This law dictates that the economic council of the state will determine how the funds are reallocated and to what project. To break this down in practice, every individual who is a member of the economic council is an appointee of the governor directly or indirectly. This includes all the current occupiers of the local government offices who were returned through the most dubious election in the history of elections in Anambra State. In other words, these are individuals who are simply out to do nothing else but the governor’s bidding. In perspective, governor Soludo is interested in Anambra State Local Government allocations from the Federation Account, but only using the Anambra State Local Government Administration Law 2024, to make his ambition look legitimate and justified, but it is not. The Supreme Court says governors should have no interest in local government’s allocation.
The decision of the Supreme Court is not subject to any form of political manipulation or further interpretation because the Supreme Court is a Court of policy. To put this differently, its decision is the law.
Soludo’s broadcast justifying his obnoxious and pretentious Local Government Administration Law 2024, is an affront to the Supreme Court’s ruling which vividly defined local government autonomy and thereby putting all arguments against the autonomy of local governments to rest. The position of Anambra State governor is equally in conflict with President Tinubu’s legacy of restoring the quintessence of the local government system in Nigeria’s federalism.
How the Federal Government addresses this emerging challenge where a State Governor tries to contradict the Supreme Court, will define the future of Nigeria’s federalism and the viability of the nation’s institutions.
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