By Adadareporters
Barr Ray Nnaji, constitutional lawyer and former national auditor of the Peoples Democratic Party, says the Supreme Court can only interpret the constitution, but can’t amend it.
He spoke against the backdrop of insinuations that the nation’s apex court would determine the fate of LG autonomy following a suit filed by the FG against the 36 states seeking the autonomy.
According to Nnaji, a former council chairman of Nkanu West LGA, there are no chances of granting autonomy to Nigeria’s 774 local government areas without amending the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Quoting him, “All eyes are on the case between the federal government and the 36 states of the federation in a suit seeking the autonomy of LGAs currently at the Supreme Court.”
Nnaji blamed the complexities in the local government administration in Nigeria on systematic problems.
He said, “LGAs ought to be independent, but the constitution made them an appendage of state governments. The constitution allowed the creation of joint accounts between states and their respective LGAs; the same constitution allowed the establishment of state electoral bodies to conduct elections into LGAs. There will never be any free and fair LGA elections in as much as states oversee the operations of state electoral bodies.
“The result will be what governors dictate. Without the independence of LGAs, our democracy is not complete. I don’t foresee the autonomy of LGAs soon because of the rigid state of our constitution.
“It requires the signing of the two-thirds of the states of Nigeria. The Supreme Court might just empower the National Assembly to amend the nation’s constitution, but the apex court can’t amend the constitution.”
He said during his era as council chairman before 1999, federal allocations were paid directly to accounts of individual LGAs, adding that, “The only thing then was that there are certain amounts we could access, and anything above such would be approved by the state, then under the military.
“But Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution brought the current situation, doing away with some provisions of the 1976 Local Government Reforms, which also provided that elections into LGAs be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission.”
