The House of Representatives has called on the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) to establish a special account to withhold allocations for Local Government Councils managed by unelected officials or caretaker committees.
This resolution followed a motion of urgent public importance sponsored by Jonathan Gbefwi (SDP, Nasarawa) and Ademorin Kuye (APC, Lagos) during Tuesday’s plenary session.
In support of the motion, Kuye argued that Section 7 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) guarantees a system of local government run by democratically-elected officials and requires state governments to ensure their existence.
Following the adoption of the motion, the House directed its Committees on State and Local Government Affairs and Finance to collaborate with RMAFC to withhold allocations to local governments run by unelected officials.
The House also urged RMAFC to “create a special account into which allocations due to local governments run by unelected officials will be paid until elected representatives are installed by such state governments.”
This resolution comes weeks after the Federal Government, through the Attorney-General of the Federation, took the 36 states to the Supreme Court to enforce the financial autonomy of local governments.
In December 2023, the Senate passed a resolution to stop allocations to certain states following a debate on a motion sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Abba Moro, addressing the urgent need to halt the erosion of democracy in local governments.
Many senators called for sanctions against states that had disrupted the democratic process in local governments by installing unelected caretaker committees.
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