Idemudia Iredia-Osifo, Chairman-Elect, Nigeria Bar Association, (NBA), Benin branch, has said that the Supreme Court judgment that granted financial autonomy to local government may experience hitches if not well regulated.
Recall that the apex court had, in a landmark judgment, declared that funds meant for the 774 local governments be paid directly into their respective accounts.
Iredia-Osifo told newsmen on Sunday in Benin that the judgement would achieve its desired purpose if applied with sincerity by the key stakeholders in the circumstances.
He said the success depended on the National Assembly and the attitude of the persons occupying the two positions (LG Chairmen/Governor).
He noted that the goodwill of the government could be sabotaged because the majority of the chairmen came into office through the governor.
According to him, It’s also noteworthy that some of these LG Chairmen are career politicians and may be tempted to compromise their autonomy for political gains and thereby create stumbling blocks.
“So it’s important to have an audit structure with the LG council that provides a blueprint for transparency in the implementation,” he said.
Another legal practitioner, Michael Ekenimoh said that the National Assembly should ensure a well-regulated conduct of LG elections.
According to Ekenimoh, local government is a constitutionally recognized tier of government, subsequently, state government should not have any power or control over local government while electing its leaders.
He said, if not, the governors would come up with ideas since both chairmen and councillors were the governors’ loyalists.
He said that the governors might even come up with projects urging local government leadership for counterpart funding of which they had no choice.
“Automatically, any chairman, who is not in the good books of the governor, will be removed by the councillors because the local government law of each state provides the law of removing a chairman.”
“Elections of local government should be conducted by INEC, not States Independent Electoral Commission.”
“Otherwise, chairmen and councillors will continue to be hand-picked by governors and the financial autonomy will only exist in the books but not in practice.”
