Since 2008, the question of whether the 774 local government areas within the Federal Republic of Nigeria should be granted autonomous status like the states or not has been a recurring decimal during constitutional amendment debates in the country. Whereas some people who were alarmed by the allegations that some state governors flagrantly abuse the Local Government and States Joint Account system established by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) yearn for further amendments of the constitution to confer autonomous status on local government areas; others who are equally uncomfortable but not emotional about the alleged abuses of the joint account system by some governors think that some other measures to curb the alleged excesses of some governors as regards the joint account system, and not autonomy for the local government system, will suffice. Recently, the Attorney-General of the Nigerian Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), has filed suit, number SC/CV/343/2024, against the 36 state governors over the same and other connected matters.
At this juncture, I invite us to take more than a cursory look at Nigeria with a view to finding out the practicability or otherwise of an autonomy clause for our local government areas: Section 2 (2) of the 1999 CFRN (as amended) provides that: “Nigeria shall be a Federation consisting of states and a Federal Capital Territory.” By this provision, Nigeria falls into the class of states like United Stat.
