SERAP to President: Withhold allocations from states with non-credible LG polls

By Olusegun Olanrewaju

Transparency group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), has called on President Bola Tinubu to take action against states that have failed to conduct credible local government elections.

SERAP wants the president to direct the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Olawale Edun, to withhold allocations from these states until they comply.

The organisation is also advocating for democratic accountability and transparency in the allocation of funds.

SERAP’s view is that only democratically-elected local government councils should receive allocations from the Federation Account, and not any other body or institution.

It urged Tinubu “to direct Mr Olawale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, to immediately withhold federal allocations to states that have failed and/refused to conduct credible local government elections, and to ensure that any allocations from the Federation Account is paid only to democratically-elected local government councils and no other body or institution.”

SERAP also urged him “to provide details of the number of local government councils that have directly received federal allocations, and whether the councils are democratically-elected, as provided for by the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended), and ordered by the Supreme Court in its judgment of 11 July 2024.”

The group also urged the minister “to promptly invite the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to jointly track and monitor the spending of FAAC allocations by democratically-elected local government councils across the country.’’

In the letter dated 5 October 2024 and signed by SERAP’s deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “Your government has the obligation to enforce the Nigerian Constitution and to prevent public wrong, including by state governors.

“A democratically-elected local government council does not, and should not, exist at the pleasure, whims and caprices of governors or their ‘political godfathers’.

“Your government also has the constitutional obligation to ensure accountability for the spending of federal allocations and immediate compliance with the judgment by the Supreme Court and the rule of law.

“Local government councils are entitled to a direct payment from the Federation Account to promote good governance, people’s welfare, and the development of local government areas across the country.

“Where the rule of law reigns, political expediency ought to be sacrificed on the altar of the rule of law so as to guarantee the continued existence of institutions created to promote social values of liberty, orderly conduct and development.

“We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within seven days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter.

‘’If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest.”

According to SERAP, it will be “entirely consistent with the rule of law to immediately withhold federal allocations to states that have failed and/refused to conduct local government elections and to ensure that any allocations from the Federation Account are paid only to democratically elected councils and no other body or institution”.

It recalled that the Supreme Court of Nigeria recently ordered the Federal Government to forthwith directly pay funds in the Federation Account only to democratically elected local government councils and no other body or institution.

The group also noted that the court also ordered the 36 state governors to ‘ensure democratic governance at the local government level.’

“The court ruled that state governors have no power to dissolve democratically-elected local government councils within their states and replace the councils with caretaker committees. The court also made ‘an order of immediate compliance by states with the terms of this judgment,’” it said.

SERAP noted that former president Muhammadu Buhari had in December 2022 stated that, “If the money from the Federation Account to the state is about N100m, N50m will be sent to the chairman, but he will sign that he received N100 million.

‘’The chairman will pocket the balance and share it with whoever he wants to share it with.
“The 36 states in Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, have reportedly collected over N40 trillion federal allocations meant for the 774 local governments areas in the country and FCT,” it said.

“The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) disbursed to states N225.21 billion federal allocations meant for local governments in November 2023 alone. States also collected N258,810,449,711.47 federal allocations meant for local government areas in December 2023.”