President Bola Tinubu is currently holding another closed-door meeting with Vice President Kashim Shettima and several governors in his office at the State House, Abuja.
The ongoing meeting began almost immediately after President Tinubu concluded discussions with the leaders of organized labour, who had met with him to discuss issues related to the anticipated new minimum wage.
Present at the meeting are the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara; Charles Soludo of Anambra; and Usman Ododo of Kogi.
Although the agenda of the ongoing meeting could not be ascertained at the time of filing this report, it is significant that it follows a few hours after the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment on the financial independence of local governments, the third tier of the federation.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court held that henceforth, the Federal Government should pay any funds allocated to local governments directly to the Local Government Areas managed by democratically elected officials.
The Court also declared it illegal for governors to dissolve democratically elected local governments and ordered the federal government to withhold allocations from local governments governed by unelected officials appointed by governors.
These pronouncements were made in the judgment of a suit filed by the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, which sought full autonomy for local government administrations.
The Supreme Court’s decision has been seen as a victory for local government administrations and the federal government that initiated the case.
Details later…
