The Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), vows to prosecute local government chairmen and councillors who tamper with FAAC allocations meant for their jurisdictions.
Fagbemi emphasizes the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on local government autonomy, aiming to ensure funds allocated to local governments are directly received and utilized by them, not state governments.
He highlights the absence of immunity for local government officials and warns of jail term for those found misappropriating funds, urging them to prioritize local development and governance.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has vowed to ensure the conviction and imprisonment of any serving local government chairmen or councillors tampering with the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations to the LGs.
He disclosed this at the 17th-anniversary annual lecture event of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) in Abuja.
His latest reaction comes a few days after he instituted an LG autonomy suit at the Supreme Court and defeated the state governors’ legal team who unanimously opposed it at the apex court.
Fagbemi narrated to the audience that for over two decades, governance in most of the 774 local governments, the third tier and closest level of government to the grassroots, has been almost crippled, and all efforts by previous administrations to solve this problem had been frustrated.
He said the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, being conscious of the linkage of governance with security and human rights, took the bold decision to approach the Supreme Court of Nigeria on the issue of LG autonomy.
He stated that the singular judgment of the apex court would not only improve governance at the local government level but would also significantly enhance security and access to human rights.
He explained that prior to the Supreme Court judgment, it was expected that authorities at the state level would allow the local government to function as described by the 1999 Constitution, but that failed to happen.
He said the option of going to the Supreme Court was due to the roadblocks associated with the Constitution amendment in the National Assembly.
He said,“The money meant for the local government was not given to the local government, and if we had gone via amendment of the Constitution, whoever that Speaker was, who attempted to allow an amendment of the Constitution to give serious autonomy to the local government if he survived that term, he is not coming back. That one is sure.
“We now thought, this money is still coming from the federation, and in a way, the money is meant for the local government; the federation now says, states be our agents, hold this money for onward transmission to the local government.
“There are two issues: the states were the agents of the federation; when the money got to the states, they became trustees of the local government so either way, they are to do their utmost to ensure that the funds were not tampered with.
“But what do we have? If you go to some local government today, some have grown with weeds.
“At that stage, we felt it is no longer possible to persuade the states to follow the Constitution except there is an order.”
Fagbemi continued that while credit must be given to the Supreme Court for providing a resounding judgment in favour of local government funds immediately going directly to the local government, there are still some issues.
He observed that local government chairmen may want to divert the funds amid state pressure.
But he explained that whereas state governors enjoy immunity in office, LG chairmen do not.
He then seized the moment to issue jail threats to serving LG chairmen who divert local government funds.
He said,
“Well, we have a situation on our hands, I know that it is still there; the conduct of elections is to be undertaken by the states.
“But the distinction is this: don’t forget, the governors have immunity, the local government council chairmen or councillors, they have no immunity, so they have to choose between dealing with the funds of the local government as they like and risking going to jail. The choice is theirs (LG chairmen).
“If they want to tamper with these funds and end up in jail, it is their choice. Or if they want to write their names in letters of gold, activities like construction or upgrading of roads must return to the local government. They don’t all have to come to Abuja.
“If they stay at the local government, we will be able to reduce the level of insecurity that we have in Nigeria today. What obtains offshore is that the security agents are able to perform optimally because of information that comes to them from members of the public and usually it is from the grassroots.”
He highlighted that good governance at the local level would lead to improved security by addressing the root causes of insecurity, such as poverty, unemployment, and social injustice.
In the suit marked SC/CV/343/2024, Fagbemi (SAN) argued that in the face of the clear provisions of the 1999 Constitution, governors have failed and refused to put in place a democratically elected local government system, even where no state of emergency has been declared to warrant the suspension of democratic institutions in the state.
Fagbemi submitted that all efforts to make governors comply with the dictates of the 1999 Constitution in putting in place democratically elected local government systems have not yielded any results.
He added that the states have been “exploiting” the role given to them to transfer LGA allocations to the respective councils “for decades.”
The states and LGAs have been operating a joint account over the years, but the AGF said that payments to the LGAs should be made directly to their separate accounts.
There has been an outcry from the LGAs regarding financial autonomy.
The suit was a constitutional matter and sought interpretation from the apex court.
In the current FAAC allocation system, the Federal Government gets 52.68%; states receive 26.72%, and local governments are given 20.6%.
