By Uche Aguoru


One positive aspect of the President Bola Tinubu administration is the efforts being made through the judiciary to strengthen local government administration.Over time, State governors have stolen and misappropriated funds meant for the development of the sub-states, hiding under the law that permits them to appoint caretaker committees. This has kept our rural communities underdeveloped because the governors divert the funds meant for running the councils to private use, denying rural communities the much-needed development. 


While the whole country and some progressive governors saw the Supreme Court judgment affirming the financial autonomy of 774 local governments as a welcome development that would strengthen and enhance the development of rural communities, Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State introduced a bill that the Anambra State House of Assembly hurriedly passed into law, mandating the local government chairmen to remit a substantial portion of their federal allocations into a consolidated account controlled by the State, thereby handing the control of Local Government funds back to him.


While the Soludo law has received widespread condemnation, with many tagging it as criminal and anti-people, in Abia State, Governor Alex Otti has allegedly copied and sneaked in the same bill that Anambarians and every patriotic Nigerian are kicking against to the Abia State House of Assembly, mandating council chairmen to return the allocations from the federal government to the State. The bill also ensures that a huge portion of the IGR domiciled in the LGAs is awarded to the State.


This bill, though in contravention of the Supreme Court’s judgment on local government autonomy and draconian in outlook, has passed through the first reading. If well-meaning Abians do not put pressure and speak up in condemnation of the bill, it will, like other executive bills, be given accelerated attention and passed into law, allowing Governor Otti unhindered access to Local Government Funds.


This bill is not meant for joint developmental purposes but to perpetuate the looting that has characterized the Otti administration. Part of the bill further mandates that each LGA must within two working days of receiving their allocations from the Federation Account, remit a state-determined percentage to the consolidated account that has already been set up in Signature Bank. If the State gets the LGA’s allocation on its behalf through the Joint Account Allocation Committee, it must deduct the specified percentage before disbursing the remaining funds to the LGA. This requirement applies even if the allocations are received directly from the Federation Account, thereby restricting the LGAs’ ability to manage their federally allocated funds independently as stipulated in the laws of the federation. The bill, if allowed to stand, has undermined the financial autonomy as guaranteed by the constitution and rendered the Supreme Court judgment impotent.


Ironically, the Labour Party in Anambra State has condemned and threatened fire and brimstone on Governor Soludo for introducing such draconian anti-people and anti-development law whereas Alex Otti, a Labour Party governor and the leader of the Labour Party is on the verge of passing the same law in Abia State, one begins to wonder if that's not the reason he insisted on handpicking all the LP candidates in the proposed council election


The information being received suggests that the state lawmakers, including those in the PDP, have been compromised and are therefore willing to give the bill an accelerated hearing. I call on the members of the House of Representatives, Senators, and elder statesmen to save our local government system and stop the speaker and all members of the ABHA from ceding the financial autonomy donated to the third tier of government to the governor.


Aguoru, a Public Affairs Analyst writes from Umuahia