The federal government has filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court against the governors of Nigeria’s 36 states, seeking full autonomy for the country’s 774 local governments.
The suit, marked SC/CV/343/2024, was initiated by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.
The federal government is asking the court to prevent governors from arbitrarily dissolving democratically elected local councils and imposing caretaker committees.
In addition, the federal government is requesting the Supreme Court to authorize the direct transfer of funds from the federation account to local governments, as stipulated by the constitution.
The lawsuit is based on 27 grounds, emphasizing the constitutional recognition of federal, state, and local governments as the three tiers of government, each drawing funds from the federation account. The originating summons states:
“That the constitution of Nigeria recognizes federal, states, and local governments as three tiers of government and that the three recognized tiers of government draw funds for their operation and functioning from the federation account created by the constitution.”
“That by the provisions of the constitution, there must be a democratically elected local government system and that the constitution has not made provisions for any other systems of governance at the local government level other than democratically elected local government system.”
“That in the face of the clear provisions of the constitution, the governors have failed and refused to put in place a democratically elected local government system even where no state of emergency has been declared to warrant the suspension of democratic institutions in the state.”
“That the failure of the governors to put a democratically elected local government system in place is a deliberate subversion of the 1999 Constitution which they and the President have sworn to uphold.”
“That all efforts to make the governors comply with the dictates of the 1999 Constitution in terms of putting in place a democratically elected local government system, has not yielded any result and that to continue to disburse funds from the federation account to governors for non-existing democratically elected local governments is to undermine the sanctity of the 1999 constitution.”
The federal government has asked the apex court to invoke sections 1, 4, 5, 7, and 14 of the constitution to declare that governors and state houses of assembly are obligated to ensure democratically elected systems at the local government level.
The Supreme Court has scheduled the hearing of the suit for Thursday, May 30.
