30th June, 2024
Former Director-General of the Labour Party, LP, Presidential Campaign Council, Dr Doyin Okupe, has expressed concern over the Federal Government’s court case against states on local government autonomy.
Okupe, expressing his position in an interview with the News Agency on Sunday, described the Federal Government’s legal battle against the states for autonomy as needless and unfortunate.
The former National Publicity Secretary of the defunct National Republican Convention, NRC, noted that in a true federal system, there are only two component units- the federal and the states.
He suggested that Nigeria should run a true federal system in which two bodies are coming together for a union, that is, the Federal Government and sub-nationalities.
He said the local governments are principally and completely issues of the state, saying that it absolutely has nothing to do with the federal government and that the idea of LGs as a third tier of government should be expunged from the constitution.
He said, “Let the nation’s money be shared between the Federal government and the states. The Federal government asking for local government autonomy in a federal system is an aberration. It is becoming so sad that we seem not to know what is right and what is wrong in the country.”
Okupe said the state government could decide to have as many local governments as it desires for grassroots development and fund it as it likes.
The Federal Government had instituted a legal action against the governors of the 36 states of the federation at the Supreme Court over what it calls their interference in the administration of local councils in their respective states.
The suit filed by the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, is seeking full autonomy for all local government areas in the country.
