False! National Assembly did not pass bill granting full autonomy to LGAs

Claim: A Facebook page, Kebbi Daily Updates, posted that the National Assembly has passed a bill granting full autonomy to the 774 local governments in Nigeria. Verdict: The claim is false. The spokesperson of the speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives said there is no such bill before the House. Also, DUBAWA’s check on Google […]

Claim: A Facebook page, Kebbi Daily Updates, posted that the National Assembly has passed a bill granting full autonomy to the 774 local governments in Nigeria.

Verdict: The claim is false. The spokesperson of the speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives said there is no such bill before the House. Also, DUBAWA’s check on Google keyword search did not bring news stories from credible news websites on the topic.

Full Text

The quest to wean Nigeria’s 774 local governments from the influence of state governments has been a source of debate over the years.

This emanates from the constitutional provision that grants state governments and local governments to share the same account to receive allocations sent to them from the federal government.

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Similarly, state governors’ ability to dissolve chairpersons of local governments has led to a lack of strong opposition in states to holding governors accountable.

In most cases, local government elections are won by candidates who share the same platform as governors. Governors sometimes appoint caretakers to manage the affairs of local governments in their domain.

The situation has led to the attribution of lack of development in rural areas to a domineering influence of state government on local governments.

For these reasons, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, sued the 36 state governments to allow local governments to exist and operate in full autonomy from the states.

Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, contributed to the debate that granting full autonomy to the local governments will significantly affect solving the country’s insecurity. He explained that local government autonomy is important to enable local communities to develop and prevent youth from viewing crimes as lucrative businesses.

However, a Facebook page, Kebbi Daily Updates, posted on July 4 that both chambers of the national assembly passed a bill granting full autonomy to the country’s 774 local governments.

The post, which received 78 likes, 33 shares, and seven comments, stated, “The National Assembly on Tuesday granted full financial and administrative autonomy to all the 774 local council authorities across Nigeria by amending section 124 of the nation’s constitution.”

While stating that the section allows local governments to stand as a full independent tier of governance devoid of interference from the state governments, it said the post was copied from the Facebook page of the Senator representing Kebbi North Senatorial district of Kebbi State, Yahaya Abdullahi.

A check on the senator’s page showed that the post was made on July 4 and garnered 172 reactions, 41 comments, and 88 shares. DUBAWA decided to investigate this claim because of its potential to misinform the public.

A Facebook search using its features showed that several accounts posted the claim on the platform, mostly in January 2024. While some accounts posted it in April 2024, it was posted on a Facebook group in December 2019.

A Google Search using the keyword “National Assembly grants full financial and administrative autonomy to all the 774 local council authorities across Nigeria” did not mention any news stories from credible media organisations.

However, it was observed that the story appeared on a news blog, Scroll Report, in July 2024.

The claim was also found on a blog, Grassroots, published in January 2018, and on Nairaland, published in October 2014.

DUBAWA decided to investigate this claim because of its potential to misinform the public.

Verification

DUBAWA contacted Musa Abdullahi, the spokesman for the Speaker of the House of Representatives. He said the current assembly has yet to pass the local government autonomy bill, which is part of the constitutional amendment that has yet to be completed.

Supreme court verdict

Following the federal government’s suit against the 36 state governments, the Supreme Court gave its verdict on July 11, allowing the 774 local governments full autonomy in their financial and administrative affairs.

The judgment, delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, ruled that the administration of Nigeria provided for three tiers consisting of federal, state, and local governments. As such, local governments should attain the right to manage their funds without interference.

It also ruled that state governments’ power to abrogate the tenures of elected local government’s chairpersons, to appoint a caretaker committee or the local government council will no longer be recognised.

Therefore, the Supreme Court declared that state governments’ use of such power violates the 1999 Constitution.

Conclusion

The claim that the National Assembly has passed a bill for local government autonomy is false. However, the Supreme Court of Nigeria recently granted local government autonomy following a suit by the Federal Attorney General.

This report is produced for the DUBAWA 2024 Kwame Karikari Fact-Checking Fellowship in partnership with the Daily Trust Newspaper to facilitate the ethos of truth in journalism and enhance media literacy in Nigeria.