The Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa in Abuja will host the meeting.
One of the National Council of State’s duties as an arm of the Nigerian government is to advise the executive on matters of policy. Past presidents, state governors, and others are among its members.
A three-month moratorium on the implementation of local government financial autonomy has been agreed to by the federal government and state governors, in response to concerns regarding the potential impact on wage payments and operational viability.
Punch reports that this development implies that the law requiring direct payments into local governments’ accounts may not be completely implemented until October for local governments nationwide.
Following the Supreme Court’s historic ruling on July 11, 2024, which upheld the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Nigeria’s financial autonomy, comes this decision.
The Accountant-General of the Federation was instructed to pay Local Government allocations straight to their accounts by the Supreme Court, which ruled that governors could no longer manage funds intended for the councils.
In addition, the court declared that it was illegal for the 36 states to withhold payments.
The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) issued a directive under former President Muhammadu Buhari that forbade transactions on State and Local Government Joint Accounts and went into effect on June 1, 2019.
This rule restricted the amount of money that may be taken out of Local Government accounts each day to N500,000 and mandated that payments be sent directly to these accounts.
The Nigerian Governors’ Forum, however, opposed the regulation, which ultimately resulted in its suspension.
The status quo persisted until May 2024, when Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), the Attorney-General of the Federation, launched a lawsuit in the Supreme Court to uphold the Local Government Areas’ constitutionally given autonomy.
The lawsuit sought to stop state governors from appointing caretaker committees in place of democratically elected Local Government councils, as the AGF said this would be against constitutional rules.
Additionally, the lawsuit aimed to guarantee that money from the Federation Account went straight to local governments rather than through joint accounts overseen by state governors.
The federal government claimed that governors intentionally subverted the 1999 Constitution by failing to set up a system of locally elected government.
The Federal Government’s lawsuit was maintained by the Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously that the Accountant-General of the Federation should now be the direct source of local governments’ allocations.
The court determined that governors’ receipt and withholding of cash allotted to Local Government Areas within their states was unlawful and unconstitutional.
Many Nigerians, especially chairmen of local government associations, have lauded the ruling as a major step toward improving grassroots governance and reforming the nation.
Nonetheless, a few state governors have voiced reservations regarding the decision’s quick execution.
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum recognized the Supreme Court’s ruling but emphasized the financial difficulties state governments encounter in assisting local governments. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the forum’s chairman and governor of Kwara State, led the group.
The day following the ruling, on July 12, Governor AbdulRazaq made the following statement during a meeting with President Bola Tinubu: “The governors are happy with the devolution of power regarding Local Government autonomy.” The amount of money states spend supporting local governments is mostly unknown to the general population.
It is anticipated that the three-month delay in implementing local government autonomy will give all parties involved time to resolve these issues and guarantee a seamless transfer to the new structure.