There are two sides to every coin. Life itself contains not only the good but also the bad and the ugly. The most fundamental rationale for creating local governments anywhere in the world is to employ it to take responsibility for the development of its area of jurisdiction directly and also contribute indirectly to the development of the nation. 

However, this fundamental rationale has been neglected over the years. Recently, the Supreme Court granted financial autonomy to the 774 local governments in the country. The granting of financial autonomy to local governments is ordinarily a good thing, but it bruises our federal system of government. 

All over the world, a federal system of government is a system of two tiers of government, but this Supreme Court decision seems to be a new definition that will create three tiers of government.

Also, the effect of it, in the long run, will see the federal government becoming a super power because it is the federal government that will dictate what happens in the local governments, taking total control and influence from the state governments. 

This has a political undertone. It is a dangerous precedent, and l do not know how it will work out. I am not saying financial autonomy is not good, but the implication is that we now have a new kind of federal system of government. It is not going to be tidy.

When the Babangida administration decided to excise primary school teachers' emoluments/salaries from states and transfer same to LGs, a crisis of inability to pay salaries ensued because of a large disparity in the concentration of primary schools in urban areas, resulting in an overbearing salary structure that such LGAs could not shoulder and this crisis remained until the arrival of democracy when the state governors devised a joint account structure to solve the crisis. Now this judgement will most probably recreate the crisis.

The Supreme Court judgment has significant implications for governance and resource management in Nigeria. Some of the implications are: State Governors will no longer have the authority to dissolve democratically elected Local Government officials, thereby strengthening local democracy and ensuring the stability of local governance structures.

Caretaker committees, often appointed by state governors to manage local governments temporarily, will be abolished nationwide. This move is expected to foster the election of legitimate local government officials.

Federal allocations will be sent directly to local governments, bypassing state governments. This ensures that funds meant for local development reach their intended destinations without interference or diversion by state authorities.

States will no longer have access to funds designated for local government areas. This measure aims to prevent the misappropriation or misuse of funds intended for local-level projects and services, promoting financial independence and accountability within local governments.

The question to be asked is this: How will the federal government monitor the local government councils to ascertain the judicious use of the funds being allocated to them? 

The young ones of this generation will not know what happened in the years past when local government councils were autonomous before the military took over the reign of power in Nigeria. In fact, gross misconduct and misappropriation of funds were the order of the day.

Local government workers including primary school teachers were owed so many months of salaries. It was the era where local government were saying they were been given zero allocation. I am not a pessimist but I do not see the judicious use of whatever is going to be given to these local governments. 

On this score, some of the stakeholders tasked the anti-graft agencies to be on their toes to avert new emperors emerging in the councils via looting of the funds. There was also a question on what happens to the state and LG joint accounts and efforts to ensure that governors will not coerce council chairmen to hand over the funds through the backdoor.

They also sought a constitutional amendment to return the conduct of council polls to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

However, it should be noted that funding the local government by the Federal Government is a real assault on Federalism. The Supreme Court decision has further weakened our federalism by giving an extra muscle to the Federal Government to pursue it’s over centralisation agenda by an extra mile. 

Now it is either we sit back and watch or take our destiny in our hands as we aim for a proper federalism for Nigeria. As far as the theory of federalism is concerned, only the sub-units have the authority to determine how to rule and administer their units and this should be without the central authority having any input whatsoever.

However, I will advise us not to rejoice yet because, based on my recent experience with the do-or-die tactics practised by ruling party politicians at all levels; with financial autonomy at the local government level, questionable and desperate politicians will go to any length to win their elections.  

In addition, these dubious politicians have the potential to escalate thuggery. If their excesses are not reined in, a corrupt LG chairman with unlimited resources might transform his or her LG secretariat into a thuggery haven. Furthermore, all monitoring agencies, such as EFCC and ICPC, among others, must be on top of their games and independent of the ruling party. 

The federal government should also establish transparency and openness in the allocation of funds to local governments so that both government monitoring agencies and non-state actors may hold these local government officials accountable. 

This is the time to ensure that the Freedom of Information Act is fully implemented and activated so that locally elected politicians may be held accountable. The National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly should also live up to their oversight responsibilities.

 I hope this landmark judgment will be holistic and protected from the manipulative tendencies of the average Nigerian, especially the crooks in the civil service, and rogue politicians all over the country. It is only then that some of us who have been advocating for such a situation at the local government level would have a sigh of relief. 

As the saying goes, he who plays the piper dictates the tune. A situation whereby the local government chairman would go cap in hand begging state government to get funds to execute pressing projects or whereby local governments are limited to paying only staff salaries is unaccepted and, would be a thing of the past with this judgment.

It is hoped that this sort of scenario will become history and we shall begin to access local government budgets and follow them up in the common interest.  

However, civil servants and elected politicians at the local governments should not think they would have a field day with council funds.

They should rather brace up for service delivery and bridge the grassroots developmental needs of our communities, especially the basic amenities, including concrete roads within communities and short inter-community link roads.

The funds received from the commonwealth are expected to be judiciously utilized with the application of the concept of transparency and accountability; operators should not be surprised when anti-graft agencies come after them.

The same civil society community that advocated for financial autonomy for local government areas would not hesitate to invite or support any process that aligns with the pursuit of transparency and accountability at the councils.

God Bless Nigeria!!!