Oyo State governor, ‘Seyi Makinde, has declared that the judgment by the Supreme Court granting financial autonomy to local government areas has created a constitutional lacuna.
According to the governor, the judgment, last week, by the apex court in the country will throw up different challenges at the local government level.
He said the judgement “is not a silver bullet that will wash away” Nigeria’s problems. He added however that he was not opposed to transparency in local government administration.
The governor assured that his government will not allow the people of the state to suffer from the fallout of the Supreme Court judgment.
Governor Makinde stated this during an Advisory/Consultative Committee Meeting, comprising stakeholders in the local government system, held on Monday.
He said he convened a meeting of all relevant stakeholders in the local government system so that they could outline the major challenges at the councils.
He added that the meeting was aimed at developing solutions that will ensure a seamless implementation of the process in a way that will ensure that the people do not suffer.
Makinde stated in a press release by his Special Adviser (Media), Sulaimon Olanrewaju, that his administration knows and has been doing what is right.
These, he said, included conducting two council elections to ensure caretaker committees don’t man the affairs of councils; clearing of backlog of debts owed workers and pensioners at the council level; and fixing of infrastructure deficit in the Primary Health Care sectors and the inner roads.
The meeting, held at the Governor’s Office, had in attendance council chairmen, the leaderships of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC).
Also in attendance were representatives of ministries, departments and agencies that have connection with the local government system.
At the end of the meeting, the governor set up two committees saddled with the responsibilities of reviewing the Supreme Court judgment on local government autonomy.
The committees were also saddled with responsibility to come up with recommendations that will ensure that the change does not affect the people of the state negatively.
“I called this meeting because I felt that, even though we have not seen the Certified True Copy of the judgment of the Supreme Court, we have to be proactive and discuss the decision of the Supreme Court.
“This is as it concerns financial autonomy of the local government councils. I believe a lacuna has been created between the decision and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that we all swore to uphold.
“The law is the law and when there is a conflict, yes, we should go to the court. But it behooves on us to look for our own homegrown solutions that can ensure that we have transparency and that our people do not suffer.
“This is because when two elephants are fighting it is the grass that will suffer,” the governor stated in the release.
Makinde noted that his administration inherited a local government system that owed a backlog of salaries, gratuities and pensions.
He added: “I am saying this because Oyo State will get out of this even stronger. We are people that know what is good for our people.
“Before we came in, leave bonuses were last paid in 2017 and we have paid for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
“The Primary Health Care facilities, inner roads were all in bad shape. But we have been working collaboratively with the LGAs to deliver dividends of democracy to our people.
“We were able to clear those salary arrears. We paid N18bn in pension and gratuities over this period. We upgraded about 209 PHCs, equipped about 264, and completed 60 model schools. We constructed and renovated hundreds of primary school classrooms and fixed some of our roads.
“But there are still challenges that we have to address. We still have a backlog of gratuities and pensions. The local governments owe about N55bn in pension and gratuities.
“We are developing infrastructure that would push the economy and raise the living standard of their people and push their economy towards sustainable goals.”
The state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Chief Ademola Ojo, spoke shortly after the closed-door meeting.
He said the two committees set up by the governor had been given a frame time of four to six weeks to come up with the homegrown approach to addressing the lacuna created by the Supreme Court judgment.
Also, the state Attorney-General/Commissioner for Justice, Mr Biodun Aikomo, said the governor took a proactive step by setting up the committees.
According to him, the step taken by Makinde would help address the crisis that might arise as a result of the judgment.
He added that the governor has shown that he is committed to the welfare of the people and the development of the state.
