Take LG S’Court judgment in good faith, lawyer to State Govts
A Port Harcourt-based legal practitioner, Mr. Ernest Obasi, has advised state governments to take last Thursday’s Supreme Court judgement on local government (LG) financial autonomy in good faith.
Obasi gave the advice in an interview with the newsmen in Port Harcourt on Monday.
He said that with the judgment, the state Houses of Assembly were expected to quickly amend relevant sections of their LG Laws that were at variance with the judgment.
According to him, the step is important since the constitution allows the state to play a supervisory role over LG councils.
He said that amending the council laws would enable the state government to suspend any council chairman who failed to comply with the existing law and replace him with his vice.
Obasi said that the judgement did not take away the power of the state Independent Electoral Commissions to conduct council elections.
He said that the verdict of the nation’s apex court would be counted among the major legacies of President Bola Tinubu, saying his political will made the difference.
He said that the letters of the judgement made it difficult for state governors to manipulate the 1999 Constitution to superintend over councils’ federal allocations under any guise.
Obasi described LG as a very strategic tier of government that should be allowed to operate independently to enable the citizens to enjoy its full benefits.
“The 1999 Constitution, as amended, does not at any time see LG as an appendage of the state government but as an independent entity.
“This is why we have three tiers of government, but due to sheer bad governance, that has not happened,’’ he said.
Obasi further said that the judgement nullified the LG laws made by the state legislatures to the extent of their inconsistency with the constitution.
“The judgement simply said that the funds for LG has to be paid directly to democratically elected office holders and that has settled the problem permanently,’’ he said.
He said that he expected the State Governments to look at their laws and comply with the Supreme Court judgement in order not to subject their councils and workers to avoidable sufferings
