The judgment by the Supreme Court to grant autonomy to the local government administration in Nigeria has been hailed by some members of the political class.

Justice Emmanuel Agim, the judge who gave the ruling ordered the federal government to pay the allocation of the local government directly to their accounts.

According to Justice Agim, it is unconstitutional for the state government to withhold and utilize the allocation meant for the LGAs.

In the landmark judgment, the court barred the governors, and privies from directly or indirectly receiving, tampering or withholding funds meant for the local governments.

The governors were also barred from henceforth dissolving democratically elected officials for local governments and that doing so would amount to a breach of the 1999 Constitution.

After the ruling, President Bola Tinubu stated that the local government chairman had no more hindrance towards the provision of good governance at the grassroots.

Tinubu said, “The Renewed Hope Agenda is about the people of this country, at all levels, irrespective of faith, tribe, gender, political affiliation, or any other artificial line they say exists between us. This country belongs to all of us.

“By virtue of this judgement, our people – especially the poor – will be able to hold their local leaders to account for their actions and inactions. What is sent to local government accounts will be known, and services must now be provided without excuses.

“My administration instituted this suit because of our unwavering belief that our people must have relief and today’s judgement will ensure that it will be only those local officials elected by the people that will control the resources of the people.

“This judgement stands as a resounding affirmation that we can use legitimate means of redress to restructure our country and restructure our economy to make Nigeria a better place to live in and a fairer society for all of our people”.

“I commend the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) for his diligence and patriotic effort on this important assignment.

“My administration remains committed to protecting the principles of the charter governing citizens, institutions of government, arms, and tiers of government in furtherance of building an efficient and performance-driven governance system that works for every Nigerian.”

While the conversation continues on social and traditional media, below are 6 major talking points from the ruling:

1. It is illegal and unconstitutional for governors to continue receiving and seizing funds allocated to LGAs.

2. The practice of governors receiving and seizing LGA funds violates Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

3. The LGAs will receive their allocation directly from the federation account.

4. The 774 LGAs must be governed by democratically elected officials, not caretaker committees

5. The 36 state governors are obligated to ensure democratic governance at the LGA level

6. The preliminary objections filed by state governors were dismissed for challenging the suit filed by the Federal Government.

7. With the judgment, several local government areas spread across 21 states would not receive July allocation from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC.

They include Jigawa, Rivers, Anambra, Kwara, Imo, Zamfara, Benue, Bauchi, Plateau, Abia, Enugu, Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Yobe, Ondo, Osun, Delta, Akwa-Ibom, and Cross River.