A former director-general of the Labour Party (LP) presidential campaign council, Doyin Okupe, says it was erroneous for federal government to have sued states over local government autonomy.
In the lawsuit marked SC/CV/343/2024, the federal government is asking for full autonomy for all Nigeria’s 774 LGAs.
Also, the federal government is seeking an order from the court prohibiting the governors from arbitrarily dissolving democratically elected councils.
But whilst speaking on Sunday, Okupe said the suit against the states as “needless and unfortunate,” noting that there are only two component units—the federal and the states—in a true federal system.
“We should run a true federal system in which there are two bodies coming together for a union: the federal government and sub-nationalities,” NAN quoted him as saying.
“The local governments are principally and completely issues of the state; it absolutely has nothing to do with the federal government, and it (the idea of LG as a third tier) should be expunged from the constitution.
“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.
“Then, the state government can decide to have as many local governments as it desires for grassroots development and fund it as they like.”