FAAC allocations: Why Nigerian governors and FG ought to open accounts for 774 native authorities areas – Ozekhome
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, has suggested governors, the federal authorities, and native authorities council chairmen to open {bank} accounts for Nigeria’s 774 native authorities areas.
He expressed his views in a press release shared with Nairametrics on Thursday, explaining that opening accounts would adjust to the Supreme Court docket’s judgment, which ordered the funds because of the LGAs to be paid on to them from the Federation Account.
Nairametrics studies that the apex courtroom judgment signaled a significant departure from what was obtained through the years, the place there was a joint account between the LGA and state governments however managed by the latter.
How you can implement the apex courtroom judgment on FAAC allocations to LGAs
Nairametrics beforehand reported that the Supreme Court docket had delivered its verdict following the federal authorities’s go well with, which aimed to stop the governors of 36 states from spending or tampering with the 20.6% allocation from the federation account to native authorities areas, amongst different reliefs concentrating on native authorities autonomy.
The apex courtroom dominated that the allocations to joint state and native authorities accounts had been merely procedural practices adopted up to now. It emphasised that it was not the intention of the 1999 Structure for governors to retain funds because of the LGAs.
The apex courtroom declared that the quantity allotted to and credited to Native Authorities Councils within the Federation Account might be paid straight by the Federation to democratically elected Native Authorities Councils, amongst different rulings.
Reacting to the event, Ozekhome said that compliance with the stated judgment shouldn’t be unattainable.
He added that the refusal by state governors to remit to the LGCs was the ugly mischief the apex courtroom judgment sought to treatment.
He defined that the content material, phrases, and directives contained within the judgment are very easy and unambiguous.
He stated that because the judgment mandates the direct cost of FAAC allocations to the LGCs, the FG, states, and LGCs should obey and implement it by opening {bank} accounts for the LGCs for the onward disbursement of their month-to-month dues.
He stated:
“The reply is equally easy. The FG, states, and LGCs ought to now meet (and I’m informed they’ve been assembly) at FAAC and determine on modalities and procedures for opening accounts for LGCs in order that their allocation underneath part 162 of the 1999 Structure is paid on to them and to not the joint state LG account that’s oftentimes waylaid by state governors and fleeced with out the helpless LGCs having the ability to increase a finger.
“The apex courtroom had declared emphatically that, ‘by advantage of part 162(3) and (5) of the Structure of Nigeria, 1999, the quantity standing to the credit score of LGCs within the Federation Account shall be distributed to them and be paid on to them’; {that a} state, both by itself or governor or different businesses, has no energy to maintain, management, handle, or disburse in any method, allocations from the Federation Account to LGCs.”
He said that compliance with the judgment is within the curiosity of justice and would carry true fiscal federalism to Nigeria.
What it is best to know
Following the Supreme Court docket verdict, the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) distributed N1.354 trillion in June income among the many Federal Authorities, states, and Native Authorities Councils (LGCs).
This distribution occurred throughout the July 25, 2024, FAAC assembly in Abuja, chaired by Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Financial system.
Edun knowledgeable the press that the Supreme Court docket judgment couldn’t be carried out at the moment as a result of the precise proceedings had not but been handed right down to the Legal professional-Normal of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, for overview and implementation.
“They weren’t within the fingers of the Legal professional-Normal for him to begin implementing,” he stated, assuring that the Supreme Court docket judgment on native governments will probably be faithfully carried out.
In a latest discussion board, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) vowed to make sure the prosecution of any serving native authorities chairpersons or councillors tampering with the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations to the LGs.
