The pan-Yoruba socio-political association, Afenifere, has strongly criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to grant full financial autonomy to local governments in Nigeria.
In a statement signed by the group’s leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, and its National Publicity Secretary, Prince Justice Faloye, they expressed their strong opposition to the ruling, stating that it has caused immeasurable harm to the Nigerian state.
The statement, titled “Tinubu and the Grand Conspiracy Against Democracy and True Federalism in Nigeria,” denounced the Supreme Court’s judgment as a deliberate collaboration with the Tinubu administration to undermine the foundational principles of federalism in Nigeria.
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Afenifere emphasized that Nigeria is a federation consisting of states and a Federal Capital Territory, as affirmed by Section 2(2) of the 1999 constitution. The group condemned the subjugation of states and their constitutional roles, including the local government system, to the control of the federal government.
Additionally, the group accused the current administration of promoting a unitary system in some of its policies, asserting that the true way forward for the country is to embrace genuine federalism. They emphasized that the government should not undermine the autonomy of states and local governments.
The statement read, “Afenifere views the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case filed by the Federal Government on the so-called local government autonomy as a sheer judicial conspiracy in cahoots with the Tinubu administration against the Nigerian state and its foundational principles of federalism.
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“Rather than interpret the constitution to uphold its elementary but overriding federal principle which recognises only a two-tier federal structure of the central government and federating states, the Supreme Court played to the gallery and wittingly allowed itself a most retrogressive declaration that the power of the government is portioned into three arms of government, the federal, the state and the local government.
“For the avoidance of any doubt, Afenifere makes bold to say that in line with its negotiated basis of existence, Nigeria is a ‘Federation consisting of States and a Federal Capital Territory’. as affirmed by Section 2 (2) of the 1999 constitution. While Afenifere frowns at corruption and misuse of public funds at levels of government, it condemns in most unmistaken terms the subjugation of the states and their constitutional roles including the local government system to the whims and caprices of the federal government by any means including obvious manipulation of the federation account as in the present case.”
“It is becoming stridently eloquent that with just over a year of its inauguration, the Tinubu government, more than even the military administrations, is uncannily determined to unitarise the Nigerian Federation.
