A civil rights activist and social critic, Senator Shehu Sani, has said local government autonomy is the only way to strengthen governance at the grass-roots and save council areas from paralysis.

Mr Sani, who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th National Assembly and served as chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, said this in an interview on Sunday.

The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice recently filed a suit at the Supreme Court against state governments, seeking the enforcement of full autonomy of the local governments in Nigeria.

In the suit marked: SC/CV/343/2024, the federal government urged the court to issue an order prohibiting state governors from embarking on unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders.

The government urged the court to issue an order permitting funds standing in the credits of local governments to be directly channelled to them from the Federation Account in line with the provisions of the constitution as against the alleged unlawful joint accounts created by governors.

Besides, FG prayed the Supreme Court for an order stopping governors from further constituting caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments as against the constitutionally recognised and guaranteed democratic system.

It also applied for an order of injunction restraining the governors and their agents and privies from receiving, spending or tampering with funds released from the Federation Account for the benefit of local governments when no democratically elected local government system is put in place in states.

The 36 governors were sued through their respective attorneys general.

Reacting to the development, Mr Sani said that the step by the federal government had potential to restore development at the grassroots and strengthen the local government system.

“Local government autonomy is the only way to save the LGs from bankruptcy and paralysis. Poverty and insecurity in the country is rooted in the destruction of the local government system,” Mr Sani said.

According to him, most council chairmen only go to their offices when federal allocations are released.

He said lack of financial and administrative autonomy for the local government had affected the performance of the third tier of government.

Speaking further, Mr Sani described FG’s proposal that State Electoral Commissions should be scrapped as a good move, saying scrapping SEICs would deepen democracy at the grass-roots.

“The scrapping of SIECs is a step in the right direction.It has become impossible for opposition parties to win elections at the LG level because of the institutional rigging and imposition of candidates by state governors. The chairmen and staff of SIECs are all agents of the state governors and of the ruling party in their respective states,” Mr Sani said.

Then Attorney-general of the Federation and Minister of justice, Lateef Fagbemi, had on Monday proposed that State Independent Electoral Commissions should be dispensed with.

Speaking at a one-day discourse in Abuja, Mr Fagbemi also posited that the powers of SIECs should be transferred to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Mr Fagbemi said governors had exploited the flaws in certain sections of the 1999 constitution, effectively rendering local governments powerless and irrelevant.

According to him, these inadequacies have allowed the governors to abuse the rights of local governments by using SIECs to impose leaders on them through sham elections.

He said other governors who do not conduct sham polls appoint vassals as caretaker leaders for the local governments.

Mr Fagbemi called for a robust constitutional amendment to remove hindrances to the development of local governments, and bolster their ability to fulfil their constitutionally recognised mandate.

(NAN)