By Chijioke Kingsley
Abuja (Sundiata Post) – Reactions have trailed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on the vexed issue of local government autonomy delivered on Thursday.
Recall that the court, aside from granting full autonomy to the local governments in the country, also ordered the Federal government to stop allocations to local governments without democratically elected council officials.
Amid jubilation among local government staff and residents of Plateau State, a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who does not want his name on print described the judgment as long overdue.
“If the constitution says the existence of a democratically elected local government is constitutionally guaranteed, then where do you have a caretaker and payments being channelled through state governments to local governments?
“The constitution also states that the local government is the third tier of government, will one tier be under another tier, and is the state under the federal government.?
“I expected the judgment to go a bit further to pronounce emphatically that there cannot be a caretaker committee under the constitution which we are operating now because a caretaker committee is not a local government,” he said.
Also in his reaction, a political pundit in the State said the judgement was long expected.
According to him, Governor Caleb Muftwang recently constituted the State arm of electoral body to conduct the LGA elections, this means the Governor is also opposed to a non democratically elected LGA Chairmen.
He however argued that the inability of the local governments in the country to get their allocations directly from the federal government has constituted a serious setback to the development of the third tier of government.
He commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the Attorney General of the federation, for taking up the matter from the Appeal court to the Supreme Court to ensure that the local government autonomy becomes a reality as expected by Nigerians.
On his part, Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, Plateau State, Yohana Arondon, said “We are overwhelmed as we have long waited for this day.
“We are sure our governor will comply with the judgment to give true and pure autonomy to the local governments in the State to guarantee grassroots development
Arondon asserted that with the full autonomy now granted the local governments, the issues of insecurity, food insecurity and other things hindering development at the third tier of government will become a thing of the past.
