Senior Advocate of Nigeria and former Dean, Faculty of Law, Nile University, Abuja, Prof Abdullahi Shehu Zuru, speaks with IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI on the implications of the recent Supreme Court judgment which grants local government financial autonomy, among others

What is your impression of the judgment delivered on Thursday by the Supreme Court local government autonomy?

I have read the summary of the judgment. In my view, the verdict was awesome and very unambiguous. Very clearly, the judgment has been spoken. It was a judgment long overdue. But I think in the past, the political will to confront the demons strangulating the local government administration was not there. So, this new judgment is a welcome development and I think once again, the judiciary has distinguished itself as being an impartial judge. More so, the verdict came through when it was most needed. That is my take on the judgment.

In the judgment, the apex court ruled that the state governors have become a dangerous species to democracy in the country because of their overbearing nature. Do you agree with this?

Yes. They (Judges) have spoken the minds of Nigerians. Every cogent observer of our democratic politics will admit painfully that the governors have succeeded in surreptitiously destroying the third tier of government in Nigeria because they have strangulated, colonized, and extinct the local government. So, what the judgment has done is to resurrect the local governments from the ashes of death.

What must have prompted the Federal Government to take the case to the Supreme Court?

As I told you, we were living in the state of Deja Vu because the local government beyond a paper statement does not exist. It was reduced to a nonentity. The entire clarion call on the Federal executive to rescue the local government administration from the criminal grip of the state executive has fallen on deaf ears. As I said earlier, I saw it as lacking the political will to confront the demons of local government strangulations. This is because, in the past, every sitting president appeared to be intimidated by the wholesome powers of the state governors.

If we were to go through the normal constitutional amendments and have the states vote on it, I can assure you that the local governments will never be emancipated. It was this superior reason that informed the decision of the current Attorney General of the Federation and the current administration to seek redress in the apex court and it paid off. This government will go down in history as the government that confronted the criminality of all the state executives who have decided to usurp the local governments and turn them into a milking cow.

By the way, the judgment was passed, what kind of freedom and rights has it given to the local governments?

It is clear. First, there will be no joint account anymore as it has been abolished. Second, caretaker council creation, which has remained highly controversial as it helps the governors to strengthen and develop their political structure in the state, has also been eliminated by the judgment.

The third part of the judgment was on the issue of local government elections, such that rather than having the usual cunning arrangement where the State Independent Electoral Commission officials will sit somewhere and write results and then proclaim that one party has won the entire local government elections, the new apex court judgment has given that responsibility to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

With this, the judgment synchronised with the ongoing efforts by the National Assembly to liberate the local governments in the context of elections. I think the latest verdict will give the local government economic freedom, and political independence and restore the integrity of the structure of which the LG is the third tier of government in the country. Those are the things I think the judgment will deliver to the LGs.

Do you think there is still a possible line of action for the state governments based on the direction of the judgment?

There is no line of action left because the Supreme Court has spoken. Once this has been done, what line of action is there again to take? Any digress from that judgment will be an embrace of criminality. If the local governments receive their allocations directly, it also depends on who is in charge of the local governments. This is because if those in charge of the LGs are more or less appointed by the state chief executive, I can bet you that there are some stupid ones among them (LG executive members) who are not ready to enjoy freedom. They want to continue to be slaves. In such cases, their allocations may ultimately end up in the hands of the state executives.

With the Supreme Court judgment, are Nigerians likely to see a complete change in the operations of the state governments as it concerns the local government affairs?

Yes, because the Supreme Court has spoken and what we expect has been laid out by the judgment. The state governments will henceforth put on their thinking caps and realise that the game is over because the local government has now been empowered and will henceforth enjoy some semblance of freedom in budgeting and expenditure. That will also have a cascading effect on the economic life of Nigerians who live at the local government level.

If properly handled, this development can become very remarkable in reducing the level of poverty at the grassroots. You and I know that we live in the current nightmare where a local government chairman cannot even award a N40,000 contract as a sitting chairman.

Recall that during Ibrahim Babangida’s administration when the local governments were receiving their allocations and had the freedom to budget as well as earmark developmental projects at their level, this created what you might call the economic class at the local government level as there were contractors who were working for the local governments, and supplying foods to schools.

This ensured that prosperity circulated at the grassroots. But today, we live in a situation where the LG Chairman cannot award N40,000 contracts. He has no clearly defined schedule in terms of mapping developments at the LGA levels. So, any project that you see at the local government level was awarded by a state governor. More so, this façade of managing the LGs’ resources to achieve prudence should be discarded. In a real sense, what prudence are you talking about?

Though the court said the judgment would be with immediate effect, many are aware of how things run in the country such that politicians tend to ignore existing court orders and do things in their way. Don’t you think this may not be a different situation?

The judgment was blunt, frank, and straightforward and its consequences will play out as soon as possible.

What is your advice to the local governments and their association in a bid to fully embrace the autonomy that the Supreme Court has confirmed?

They (LGs) can’t go beyond sensitising their members. But with the new-found freedom, they must complement the best intentions of the government by ensuring that they succeed and there are no more complaints. This is because if they receive their allocations directly and they earmark their development projects with the financing being done at their local government level, they must ensure that they execute the projects.

Perhaps, going forward, the national body of local government administrators will superintend over how the LGs operate to ensure the integrity of the system so that the local government will not fail the legitimate expectations of Nigerians, particularly the Tinubu administration.

Going by the judgment, is it the Independent National Electoral Commission or the State Independent Electoral Commission that will be conducting the local government elections?

That is the import of the judgment. Even the National Assembly has spoken out in support of INEC conducting local government elections; because that is the only way you can ensure neutrality and fair play. That will also enhance the quality of local government administrators as it will give room for people with better competence and character to contest elective positions at the LG level instead of the way the state governors handpick their stalwarts to the positions with little or no consideration for whether such people are competent enough to occupy the positions or not.

Does this mean that the ruling party of the governors at the state level will also not have any grip or control on the local government?

That is the import of the decision. Or what grip do they have hitherto? It was all about economic grip over the local governments. Mind you, the economy, according to Karl Max, is a concentrated political expression. That is, whoever controls the economy controls the political power. That is what it is.

So, they (governors) have this incredible grip over the finances of the local governments. This gave them the power to render the LGs useless and inconsequential. But now, the governors must understand that the party has ended. By that court judgment, the country has moved forward a bit and there is no going back. Any attempt to go against the judgment will only amount to criminality and any state governor can be charged with contempt.