Employees of 408 local government areas across the country which do not have democratically elected local council officials will not receive salaries starting from July 2024 if the latest Supreme Court verdict on local government autonomy is implemented to the letter......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
This Supreme Court, in its judgement on Thursday, affirmed that no allocations should be paid to such local council areas, stressing that the order takes immediate effect.
The seven-man panel of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Emmanuel Agim, affirmed that the 774 local government areas in the country should henceforth be the ones to manage their monthly allocations, insisting that state’s retention of the local government funds was unconstitutional.
The apex court also held that a democratically elected local government is sacrosanct and non-negotiable.
Many Nigerians across political divides have hailed the Supreme Court verdict.
A constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, Festus Ogun, said on his X handle, “If the President cannot appoint Caretaker Governors for states, why should governors appoint caretaker chairmen for local governments? This unconstitutionality must stop immediately.”
The Nigerian Observer analysed the apex court’s verdict, taking into consideration the local government areas in the country without democratically elected officials and their ability to pay without the regular monthly allocations from the Federal Government. Our findings show that none of the affected LGAs could afford to pay without the monthly allocations, even as over 15 states have been rated by Analysts Data Services and Resources (ADSR), a think tank cum economic research outfit, as not having the ability to pay the new minimum wage being negotiated by the labour unions.
As of June 2024, a total of 408 LGAs across the six geopolitical zones, representing 53 percent of the 774 LGAs in the country, are without democratically elected officials. And none of them could afford to pay the salaries of their workers without a recourse to the monthly allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
The worst hit regions are the North-West, South-East and North-Central.
There are 115 local council areas in the North-West without elected local government officials. The affected states are Katsina, Kano, Sokoto and Zamfara.
In the South-East geopolitical zone, the states without elected local government officials are Abia, Anambra, Enugu, and Imo States, with 82 local government areas affected.
The case of Anambra State is the worst, as the last local council poll in the state was held in 2014. The state assembly as recently as May 2024 passed a law to set up the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission.
In the South-South, local government areas in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States, 49 in number, are without elected officials. Delta State on July 13, 2024 organised a local council poll to usher in elected officials, fearing that non-compliance with the apex court’s verdict could put a strain on its resources.
In the North-Central, Benue, Kogi, Kwara and Plateau States are without elected local government officials, bringing the number of affected local councils in the region to 77.
In the North-East, Bauchi and Yobe States are without elected local council officials, with the affected local council areas being 37.
ADSR, in its latest publication that highlights the ability of states to conveniently pay the new minimum wage being negotiated by the labour unions, stated that there are two million Nigerians who are employed by the 36 states and FCT Abuja, as well as their 774 local government areas as of May 2024.
Under the scenario that the minimum wage of N62,000 is negotiated and agreed upon, only a handful of states will be able to pay it, going by their internally generated revenue, monthly allocations and their debt stock.
The Nigerian Observer analysis further shows that if some states will find it difficult paying the proposed new minimum wage even with monthly allocations, it then implies that many local government officials will not be able to pay their workers’ salaries if allocations are not paid to them because those LGAs are without democratically elected officials.
The worst hit states that will not be able to pay the proposed minimum wage, based on ADSR’s findings, are Benue, Osun, Oyo, Kogi, Adamawa and Jigawa.
Others are Kebbi, Plateau, Kano, Nasarawa, Ekiti, Taraba, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Ondo, Cross River, and Abia.
“States’ ability to pay higher minimum wages is computed and ranked as a combination of the previous ranking. This analysis shows that states with relatively high ability to pay are those currently having: low personnel expenses to total expenditure ratio, low personnel expenses to revenue ratio, especially, IGR, low debt profile, and relatively high elasticity of personnel costs contribution to future revenue and expenditure,” ADSR said.
Meanwhile, Adamawa State Government has approached the Supreme Court for further interpretation of the ruling on local government autonomy, according to a release by the Chief Press Secretary to the Adamawa State Governor, Humwashi Wonosikou.
“The State Government is seeking a strict interpretation of the Constitution to ensure that revenue distribution is done in a transparent and constitutional manner, without arbitrary deductions or withholdings by the Federal Government,” Wonosikou said in a post on X.
The Adamawa State Government, he said, is asking that the entire sum in the Federation Account be distributed among all levels of government without deductions, except as permitted by law; that the President must comply strictly with the Constitution in managing and distributing revenue; that all revenue collected, except those exempted by the Constitution, must be paid into the Federation Account for distribution to all tiers of government, and that the Federal Government has no discretion to withhold or deduct revenue for any purpose not expressly permitted by the Constitution.