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Professor of Practice in International Human Rights Law Chidi Odinkalu has stated that local government funds will still end up with state governors.
He made this remark while discussing Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling on Channels TV’s Politics Today.
Pulse reports that the Supreme Court has ruled on a case concerning local government autonomy brought by the Federal Government against the 36 state governors.
Odinkalu responded to the judgment by saying that although the ruling changes the method by which governors receive these funds, it doesn’t prevent them from influencing local government elections to install their preferred chairmen.
“A local chairman who has been installed in a rigged election controlled entirely by the governor will give the fund back to the governor. What this person is going to do is to collect the money and hand it back to the governor. So, all they are doing is altering the sequence by which the money will go back to the governor. But the money still goes back to the governor.
“And the reason the money will go back to the governor is because the mandate as a matter of jurisprudence set up by the Supreme Court is not with the people. The mandate is in the politicians’ hands. Until we address this, we are wasting time and efforts.
“If they said that they will not give money to caretaker chairmen, the president (Bola Tinubu) went through the same thing with Obasanjo. Obasanjo held up their money when he (Tinubu) was the governor of Lagos State. If that is the consequence they want to live with, they want to afflict others with, we live by the swing of the pendulum. It may take one decade or 20 years, but it will turn around,” he said.
Sowore unimpressed by Supreme Court's verdict
Also reacting to this ruling, former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore noted that the political spectrum remains polluted unless local government leadership are democratically elected.
Sowore, who reacted via his X handle, wrote, "As long as Nigerian state governors control the state electoral machinery, ruthlessly rig Local Government elections, and install their minions (minimes) in the LGAs, the Supreme Court ruling would remain ineffective!
"And at any rate, any time @officialABAT is seen around control of funds, run, please run!"