The 1999 Constitution has been held accountable by Lateef Fagbemi, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, for the misuse of local governments by governors.
This was said by the AGF on Monday at a conference hosted by the Committee on Constitution Review of the House of Representatives.
Speaking on local government misuse, Fagbemi claimed that because of the ambiguity in the constitution, local governments are now perceived as mere extensions of state governments.
The AGF discussed the relationship between the state and local governments, stating that “the 1999 Constitution did not adequately provide for the political autonomy of the local governments” and that “the nature, content, and direction of local government elections and political activities are at the discretion of the state governments as a result of these inadequacies.”
“The failure of the Constitution to articulate a clear line of authorities to both the state and local authorities and the continuing debate over the involvement of state governments in distributing local government allocation from the Federation Account has affected the capacity of LGAs to provide essential services at the grassroots,” he said.
Recall that the AGF had sued the 36 federation state governments in the Supreme Court on the issue of local government autonomy.
