LG Autonomy: ALGON says judgment, a new birth to democracy

The Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) has hailed the Supreme Court judgment granting financial autonomy to Local Government Areas describing it as the “birth of a new democracy” in Nigeria.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Supreme Court on Thursday declared that it was unconstitutional for state governors to hold funds allocated for local government administrations.

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.

The Supreme Court, however, ordered the Accountant General of the Federation to only pay in LGA funds into LGAs with democratically elected chairmen and councillors.

NAN reports that this has put an end to Transition Committees, Caretaker Committees or sole administrators.

Now, the State Assemblies have no other option than to pass the LGA autonomy bill once it gets to them.

Reacting to the judgement, the ALGON Board of Trustees Secretary, Chief Chukwudi Ezinwa, told NAN in a telephone interview on Thursday that the judgement was a “birth of a new democracy in Nigeria”.

He noted that a lot of atrocities had been committed by some of the state governors that had stampeded the Local Government from carrying out its operations.

(NAN)