A Bill seeking to establish a federal agency for the conduct of local government elections on Thursday, July18, scaled first reading in the Senate.
By Emma Ogbuehi
A Bill seeking to establish a federal agency for the conduct of local government elections on Thursday, July18, scaled first reading in the Senate.
The Bill titled, “Local Government Independent Electoral Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2024” was sponsored by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, (APC – Niger East).
The bill, if enacted to law will take the council elections from the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs), that have increasingly come under criticism for the opacity in its activities.
The Supreme Court, through its landmark judgement on Thursday, July 11, 2024, granted financial autonomy to the local government areas.
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The Supreme Court in its judgement, declared that it is unconstitutional for state governors to hold funds allocated for local government administrations. The court further declared that a state government has no power to appoint a caretaker committee, stressing that a local government council is only recognisable with a democratically elected government.
The seven-man panel, in the judgment delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, declared that the 774 local government councils in the country should manage their funds themselves.
The apex court held that the power of the government is portioned into three arms of government, the federal, the state and the local government. It ruled that state governments are perpetuating a dangerous trend by refusing to allow democratically elected local government councils to function, instead appointing their loyalists who can only be removed by them.
“A democratically elected local government is sacrosanct and non-negotiable,” the court said.
The judgement is a fallout of a suit filed by the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), on behalf of the Federal Government, seeking to grant full autonomy and direct funding to all 774 local government councils in the country.
In response, the 36 state governments, through their attorneys general, filed a counterclaim, arguing that the Supreme Court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case.
In the judgement, Justice Agim affirmed that the AGF has the legal authority to initiate the lawsuit and uphold the constitution. Justice Agim said, “I hold that the plaintiff’s request is hereby approved and all the reliefs granted.”