The Senate has opted not to take a position on the contentious issue of local government autonomy, which is currently the subject of a Supreme Court case between the Federal Government and state governors.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Yemi Adaramodu, clarified that the National Assembly is constrained from taking a stance until the Supreme Court makes a final pronouncement on the matter.
The case, filed by the Attorney General of the Federation, seeks to stop governors from unilaterally dissolving local government executives and to direct funds to local governments directly from the Federation Account, among other reliefs, according to Nigerian Tribune.
The Senate’s decision to await the Supreme Court’s ruling underscores the importance of allowing the judicial process to run its course before weighing in on this critical issue affecting local governance in Nigeria.
He said, “We might not be able to say much about it (LG autonomy) but then, we are talking about distributing funds to local governments.
“There are indices that inform the distribution of funds to local governments. Equality, land mass, social indices. So, when we talk about one of seven of the schools in Akure, that’s social indices. That is where they indicate how many hospitals.
“How many dispensaries? How many primary schools? How many junior secondary schools? Then population. So they distribute based on that. So, definitely there’s a local government that has only one primary school, and there’s another one that has 37 primary schools that are not going to get the same thing because of that formula. So just for education.
“But for local government autonomy, we’ll not discuss further until the Supreme Court rules accordingly.
“When the Supreme Court rules, then the National Assembly will know where to take it from, whatever the ruling is.”