The House of Representatives has urged the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to create a special account to withhold allocations of Local Government Councils run by unelected officials or caretaker committees.
The resolution of the House followed a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Jonathan Gbefwi (SDP, Nasarawa) and Ademorin Kuye (APC, Lagos) during the plenary session on Tuesday.
Making his argument in favour of the motion, Kuye stated that Section 7 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) guarantees the system of local government run by democratically-elected officials and provides that the state governments should ensure their existence.
According to him, the local government is the most important tier of government as “it is the closest to the people and forms the foundation of both the state and Federal Governments.”
Following the adoption of the motion, the House mandated its Committees on State and Local Government Affairs and Finance to work with RMAFC to withhold allocations to local governments run by unelected officials.
It also urged RMAFC to “create a special account into which allocations due to local governments run by unelected officials will be paid until elected representatives are put in place by such state governments.”
The resolution of the lawmakers comes weeks after the Federal Government, through the Attorney-General of the Federation, dragged the 36 states before the Supreme Court to enforce the financial autonomy of the local governments.
In December 2023, the Senate passed a resolution to stop allocation to some states after debate on a motion sponsored by the Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro, on the urgent need to halt the erosion of democracy in local governments.
Many senators urged the government to sanction states that had disrupted the democratic system in the local governments and installed unelected caretaker committees.
At the House of Representatives plenary on Tuesday, Kuye said, “The House is concerned that the dissolution of democratically elected councils is in direct contravention of Section 7 of the Nigerian Constitution, the Supreme Court pronouncements on such matters and a deliberate affront on democracy.
“We are worried that the number of states acting with impunity and in utter disregard to the constitution continues to increase as not less than 21 State Governors are currently running local government councils with caretaker committees.
“The House is dismayed that this impunity and disregard to the constitution is a deliberate effort to upstage democracy, frustrate accountability and transparency in the local government and also thwart their development potentials.”
