LG autonomy: Anambra lawyer foresees constitutional crisis in implementation of Supreme Court ruling

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Ejiofo Umegbogu

By Alphonsus Nweze, Onitsha

Onitsha-based legal practitioner, Ejiofo Umegbogu, has expressed fear that the Supreme Court ruling on the Local Government autonomy would trigger-off constitutional crisis.

He said the only way out of the impending logjam is for the National and State Assemblies to ensure speedy amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

The lawyer advocated the abolition of the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECs) through constitutional amendment to allow INEC conduct election for the Local Governments in the country to produce democratic leaderships at the grassroot.

He insisted that as long as the Governors were allowed to continue to conduct elections through SIECs, the much needed democracy at the grassroot cannot
be attained because the Governors would continue to put their puppet who would not hesitate to sign out local government allocations to them.

This, the legal practitioner said, defeats the aim of Local Government autonomy being championed by Nigerians and they would not benefit from the judgment of the Supreme Court.

He however described the Supreme Court judgement that granted financial autonomy to local government as a welcome development that has triggered off the much-anticipated restructuring of Nigeria.

Umegbogu explained that the judgement will strengthen the local government system, shift much attention from the federal and state governments, and empower the masses to begin to ask questions on management of resources at the grassroots.

But he is of the view that the court decision will bring about constitutional crisis if the national assembly doesn’t commence amendment of the constitution forthwith, just as he explained that the populist judgement will also lead to agitation for resource control, as well as creation of more local governments by states.

Umegbogu explained that with the judgement, the judiciary has passed the buck to the legislature to amend certain sections of the 1999 constitution, including section 7(1), section 162(6) that provides for joint state and local government account, and others that entangle the local government system, without which the judgement will be next to nothing, aside triggering off constitutional crisis.

The legal practitioner opined that the Supreme Court judgment will re-ignite the agitation for control of resources by states because when the various state governments are starved of funds from local government allocation, states will begin to demand for control of their minerals and other resources to enable them run their affairs and pay tax to the federal government.

He argued that the judgement will also water the ground for some states to start agitating for creation of more local governments because presently, while some states have 40 local government areas, others have 18, meaning more money for the former.

According to him, Nigerians will soon be asking some critical questions on the lopsided creation of existing local governments by previous military administrations which resulted in the establishment of local government Arras based on empty landmass of the North, while the thickly populated South got lesser number of Local Government Areas, which now translates to lesser federal allocation of resources.

Umegbogu suggested that the National Assembly should come up with more constitutional provisions to strengthen how people emerge as leaders at local government level, specify and define the tenure of local government chairmen as is the case with Governors of states.

“The tenure of local government Chairmen should be specified and defined in the constitution, just like the four-year tenure of President and Governors were specified. Joint state and local government account stipulated in section 162(6) should be removed from the 1999 constitution. The constitution should be amended to give INEC powers to organize elections into the local government councils”.

Umegbogu however feared that some state Governors may truncate any planned constitutional amendment using the state legislatures, unless the federal government engages the Governors in consensus building, political conciliation and more economic pressures that can compel the powerful Nigerian governors to key into the wind of change that is blowing.