Nigerian Tribune.
Dr. Doyin Okupe, former director-general of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council, criticized the Federal Government for its legal action against states regarding local government autonomy.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, Okupe, also a former presidential spokesperson and national publicity secretary of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), described the government's lawsuit as unnecessary and regrettable.
He argued that in a true federal system, there are only two entities: the federal government and the states.
Okupe emphasized that local governments are exclusively within the jurisdiction of states and should not be considered as a third tier of government under the federal system.
"In a true federal system, the nation's resources should be shared between the federal government and the states," Okupe stated.
He criticized the federal government's demand for local government autonomy within a federal system, labeling it as an anomaly and reflecting a misunderstanding of federalism.
"It's disheartening that we seem to have lost our sense of what is right and wrong in the country," Okupe lamented, advocating instead for states to have the authority to establish and finance local governments as they see fit for grassroots development.
The Federal Government's legal action, led by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, targets state governors at the Supreme Court.
The lawsuit seeks to enforce full autonomy for local government areas nationwide, aiming to prevent governors from unilaterally dissolving democratically elected local councils and redirecting local government funds away from state-controlled joint accounts.