Doyin Okupe, former Director-General of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign Council and a former Presidential spokesperson, has criticized the Federal Government's legal action against states over local government autonomy. In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos, Okupe described the Federal Government’s court case as "needless and unfortunate."
Okupe, who also served as National Publicity Secretary of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC), argued that a true federal system comprises only the federal and state governments. "Local governments are principally and completely issues of the state; it absolutely has nothing to do with the federal government. The idea of local government as a third tier should be expunged from the constitution," he stated.
He advocated for a system where national revenue is shared between the federal government and the states, allowing state governments to create and fund local governments as they see fit for grassroots development. "The Federal Government asking for local government autonomy in a federal system is an aberration," Okupe added.
This comes as the Federal Government has filed a lawsuit against the governors of the 36 states at the Supreme Court, alleging interference in local council administration. The suit, filed by Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, seeks full autonomy for local governments. It asks the court to prohibit state governors from dissolving democratically elected local government leaders and to ensure funds are directly channeled to local governments from the federation account, bypassing state-controlled joint accounts.
The Federal Government also seeks to stop governors from appointing caretaker committees to manage local government affairs and to restrain them from handling funds meant for local governments without a democratically elected system in place.
Okupe’s comments highlight the ongoing debate over the structure and function of local government in Nigeria's federal system, as the Supreme Court case proceeds.
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