By 
A former governor of Anambra State, Senator Chris Ngige, has enjoined the Supreme Court to revisit its judgement on local government financial autonomy, maintaining that it undermined the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
He spoke at the weekend in Enugu, as a Guest Lecturer at the 29th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Scientific Conference of the Association of Urological Surgeons, Nigeria (NAUS).
Ngige, who was also the Minister for Labour and Employment from November 2015 to May 2023, frowned at neglect of more than 15,000 primary healthcare centres in Nigeria.
He stated that the judgement attempted to completely knock down Section 7 of the constitution, which puts the local government areas under the control of the states.
He recalled that the same Supreme Court, had earlier in 2006 made a pronouncement, warning the federal government against dictating to the states how to spend local government funds accruable to them.
Ngige said, the previous ruling by the Supreme Court under Justice Mohammed Uwais, was made in a case filed by three state governments – Lagos, Abia and Delta –through their attorney generals, challenging then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Local Government Account Monitoring Committee Act 2005.
Speaking on the topic, “Local Government Administration and Primary Healthcare,” Ngige who is a medical doctor and health system administration specialist, said he did not support the direct payment of federal allocation to the local governments without statutory first line deductions for payment of salaries and wages of local government workers, pensions and gratuities, traditional rulers entitlements and customary court allowances.
He also recalled his days as Governor, stating that council chairmen between 1999 and 2002 owed several months of salaries and allowances, and pensions and gratuities, not only in Anambra State, but almost all the states of the Federation.
Comments