Senate To Amend Constitution To Accommodate S/Court Ruling On LG Autonomy

ABUJA – The Senate has aligned itself with the judgment of the Supreme Court on financial autonomy to the 774 local government councils across the country. This is as it urged all the three tiers of government to fully com­ply with the judgment. It also resolved to, in collabora­tion with the House of Represen­tatives, amend some provisions of the 1999 constitution.

The Senate’s resolutions followed motions separately sponsored to these effects by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin, which were separately seconded by Senator Abdul Ningi and Senator Tahir Monguno. But Senate resolutions came two hours after it earlier ran into troubled waters on enforceability of the Supreme Court judgement at the state and local government levels. Senator Tony Nwoye (LP: Anambra North) had at com­mencement of plenary, rose through orders 41 and 51 of the Senate Standing rules, to move a motion on alleged move by some state governments to circumvent implementation of the judgment through counter laws from their respective state Houses of Assem­bly.



Nwoye before Senate ran into confusion over the matter, in­formed the Senate that nine other senators were co-sponsors of the motion. He specifically alleged that some state governors are already using their House of Assembly to enact laws that would mandate re­spective local government coun­cils in their states to remit monies into state/local government joint account ruled against by the Su­preme Court. But immediately after finish­ing with his presentation contain­ing six prayers for enforcement of the judgment and seconded by Senator Osita Izunaso (APC: Imo West), Senator Adamu Alie­ro (PDP: Kebbi Central) raised a constitutional point of order for stoppage of debate on the motion.

Adamu Aliero cited Section 287 of the 1999 constitution that makes Supreme Court judgment enforce­able across the country, to urge the Senate not to over-flog the issue. “Supreme Court judgment is enforceable across the country. There is no need for us to be debat­ing anything that has to do with it here,” he said.

In aligning with Senator Alie­ro, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, threw spanner at the motion by drawing the attention of senators to Section 162 sub-section 6 of the 1999 con­stitution. The section, according to Akpa­bio, created the State/Local Gov­ernment Joint Account, which has to be amended in paving way for full implementation of the Su­preme Court judgment. “I think what we need to do is to carry out required amendments of certain provisions of the consti­tution as far as local governments’ autonomy is concerned,” he said.

But before taking final decision on the motion, the sponsor, Sena­tor Nwoye hurriedly raised order 42 of the Senate Standing Rules for personal explanation on the motion the same time. Senator Abdulrahman Sum­maila Kawu (NNPP: Kano South) raised a similar point of order. The simultaneous points of order brought confusion into the session with many senators rushing to the Senate President for personal consultation, which eventually made the Senate go into an emergency closed-door session at exactly 12:46p.

m. Resolutions taken at the emer­gency session which lasted close to two hours, were the two separate motions moved by the Deputy President of the Senate and ad­opted by the Senate..