The Senate, on Wednesday, resolved that states and local governments must fully comply with the Supreme Court judgment on financial autonomy for councils.
It also resolved to tinker with the Constitution to streamline its positions on local government administration in line with the July 11 judgment of the apex court.
The decision came with its own drama which played out in the Red Chamber during plenary.
The drama started when some senators raised points of order during the debate on the motion sponsored by Senator Tony Nwoye (Anambra North) and seconded by nine others.
Following what appeared to be near confusion, the Senate went into an emergence closed door session for two hours.
When it reverted to an open session, two prayers were put on the table.
They were carried after a voice vote.
The prayers were moved by Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin.
Barau said: “Mr. President, based on the deliberation that was made by this August Senate in the just concluded executive session, I stand to move on behalf of this Senate, for the approval of two prayers in respect of the motion that was brought by Senator Tony Nwoye (Anambra North), thereby discarding the earlier prayers in the motion as brought by the mover.
“The two prayers are as follows: All states and local governments to fully comply with the recent Supreme Court judgment on the disbursement of and utilisation of funds accruing to all local governments in Nigeria.
“That the Senate ensures alterations to the relevant provisions of the Constitution to provide for the full autonomy of the local governments in Nigeria.”
The first prayer was seconded by Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central). The second was by Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno (Borno North).
The motion moved by Nwoye is tittled: “Urgent need to prevent and stop implementation of actions of State Governments using their State Houses of Assembly to enact laws that breach constitutional provisions and the Supreme Court judgment on granting financial autonomy to local governments in line with the provisions of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”
In his lead debate, Nwoye drew the attention of his colleagues to attempts by some state governments to circumvent the July 11 judgment of the Supreme Court granting financial autonomy to local governments by enacting new laws to enable them to continue to withhold or deduct the funds of local governments in contravention of the recent apex court judgment on financial autonomy of LGAs.
He expressed concern that the “Modus Operandi of subverting this financial autonomy of Local Governments by State Governments through their Houses of Assembly is to insert clauses in their laws requiring the Local Governments upon receipt of their allocation from the Federation Account to remit all or majority or substantial portion of their allocation to a dedicated account which the State Governments will keep, control, manage or disburse for them, using some nomenclatures like state/LGA joint account, state/LGA Consolidated revenue account, Local Government Joint Security Trust account etc.”
Anambra State, from where Nwoye hails, is the first state where the House of Assembly passed a Bill authorising councils to put money into a joint account with the state government for common projects.
The Supreme Court had ruled that governors cannot retain money intended for local government administrations because it is unconstitutional.
Additionally, the Supreme Court prohibited governors from dissolving the nation’s democratically elected local government councils as it ruled that doing so would violate the 1999 Constitution.
The emergency session was called by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, following a constitutional point of order by Senator Adamu Aliero while the debate was on.
Aliero had cited Section 287 of the Constitution and urged the Senate to suspend debate on the motion to the effect that since the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, its judgments were binding on all relevant institutions without any need for push or assistance by the Senate.
“Supreme Court judgment is enforceable across the country. There is no need for us to be debating anything that has to do with it here,” Aliero said.
While sustaining the point of order raised by Aliero, Akpabio corroborated him, saying that as a former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Akwa Ibom State, he is abreast with Section 162, Sub-section 6 of the Constitution which provides for state and local government joint account at the subnational level.
“I think what we need to do is to carry out required amendments of certain provisions of the constitution as far as local government autonomy is concerned,” Akpabio said.
At this point, Nwoye raised Order 42 of the Senate Standing Rules for personal explanation on the motion while Senator Summaila Kawu (NNPP, Kano South) also raised a similar point of order.
These points of orders prompted confusion in the chamber, with many senators rushing to the Senate President for personal consultation.
Following this development, Akpabio signaled to Barau and other principal officers to “approach the chair” (a term for asking them to come closer to the Senate President).
After conferring with them for about 10 minutes, Barau and the principal officers returned to their seats while Akpabio announced that the Senate had decided to resolve into a closed door session to deliberate further on the matter.
