By Dr. Joel Ademisoye, United States
I just stumbled upon a video clip in which President Tinubu, is asking the question why, complaining and blaming someone for the federal allocations not reaching the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Nigeria? You might recall that the Nigerian Supreme Court in a landmark judgment granted the financial and administrative autonomy to the 774 LGAs in the country in June 2024. However, more than two years after the judgement, many state governors Aare holding out, non compliance and in fact, still collecting, controlling and managing the federal allocations belonging to the 774 LGAs in Nigeria. It is of great interest to this writer to examine, analyze and discuss why the prevailing conditions of non compliance with the Supreme Court landmark judgment on the financial and administrative autonomy for the 774 LGAs by the many state governors?
It is my humble opinion that the President Tinubu administration is overly weak and ineffective in its role of enforcement of the Supreme Court judgment of June 2024. What are the barriers to the effective implementation of the landmark Supreme Court decision, granting the financial and administrative autonomy to the 774 LGAs in Nigeria? and please stop Why is President Tinubu is dragging his feet and reluctant in ensuring that federal allocations are paid directly into the LGAs’ accounts, appears to be disingenuous and distorted. Frankly speaking, it appears that President Tinubu is playing the eyes and lips services, behaving like he is ignorant of what don’t what is going on with the 774 Local Government Areas / Councils in Nigeria- not receiving their Federal Allocations as mandated by the Nigerian Supreme Court judgement of 2024. Many of the 36 state governors are circumventing and disobeying the Supreme Court judgement in not allowing the Federal allocations to get to the LGAs. Is this not a personal greed behavior by the state governors, who are still serving as the collector, custodian and manager of the Federal Allocations meant for the LGAs in Nigeria? In this writer’s view, this is part of the Nigeria’s political problem and its corruption tendency, which is scheming, cheating and denying the 774 LGAs their federal allocations.
The real question is, in the view that the state government, is serving as a Sponge for the LGAs’ federal allocations, which helps to explain why many communities, towns and cities in a local government areas are facing the shortage of the necessary financial resources and funds for the implementation of the community social, health programs and development projects.
In view of the the decision, the Supreme Court mandated a direct federal allocations to the 774 LGAs of the country. Two years later, there is still uneven compliance with the Nigerian Supreme judgment by the 36 state governors. President Tinubu, please don’t pretend that you are out of the loop of knowledge concerning the many state governors, who are still collecting, controlling and managing the federal allocations of the local government areas in the state. Having listened to the video clip In which President Tinubu is asking what happens to the federal allocations for the 774 LGAs in Nigeria? Mr. President Tinubu, I found your question to be unrealistic, mischievous, just playing plain politics and playing to the gallery of the 36 state governors in the country.
For example, it is a public knowledge and in the public domain that the Governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, is one of the many state governors, who are non compliance with the Nigeria Supreme Court judgement, which granted the financial and administrative autonomy, to the 774 LGAs in Nigeria. The honest truth is, in Ondo State, Governor Aiyedatiwa is collecting, controlling and managing the federal allocations for the 18 LGAs in Ondo State through the State- Local Government Joint Account (SLGJA) system. Question: Why is the President Tinubu administration dragging its feet, still paying the federal allocations for the 18 LGAs in Ondo State into the State- Local Government Joint Account? I am suspicious that President Tinubu has the knowledge of the non compliance with the Nigerian Supreme Court judgement on the financial and administrative autonomy for the 774 LGAs in the country by the state governors, but the president is caught between a rock and a hard place, making it impossible to take action, by asking his Federal Minister of Justice and Attorney- General, Barrister Lateef Fagbemi, to aggressively enforce the Supreme Court judgement of 2024. Also, President Tinubu is avoiding the rocking of the boat carrying the 36 state governors over the non compliance with the Supreme Court judgment, particularly in the view of the upcoming 2027 Nigerian Presidential election in January of next year. I consider the President Tinubu’s inaction to be deliberate, because it is part of the President Tinubu’s political strategy and presidential politics in the country.
You might recall that 31 APC Party State Governors have endorsed and supported the reelection bid of President Tinubu in the 2027 Nigerian presidential election.
