Prominent legal practitioner Kunle Adegoke, SAN, has strongly criticised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over its handling of the Supreme Court’s judgment granting financial autonomy to local governments, warning that current implementation delays risk undermining the rule of law.

Speaking on the lingering issue, Adegoke, in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Thursday, asserted that the Supreme Court delivered a clear and landmark judgment mandating direct allocations to Nigeria’s 774 local government councils. However, one year after the decision, full implementation remains stalled mainly due to what he describes as “unnecessary and possibly illegal” conditions being imposed by the CBN.

“The Supreme Court has spoken. The Attorney General of the Federation has done the needful, the Attorney General has gone to court and has succeeded in obtaining a judgment, which is in implementation and would require the Office of the Accountant General and the office of CBN to carry out.

“But with this issue of 2 years of audited reports of accounts, I think it is just a hurdle that is just unnecessary.”

Adegoke argued that this requirement has no basis in the judgment and amounts to an intentional effort to defeat its purpose. “365 days after the judgement was delivered and we are still talking about how it is going to be implemented when exactly are we getting out of such endodeum. I think it is not a thing we should be experiencing now it is uncalled for.”

“If state governments are not required to provide two years of audited accounts before receiving federal allocations, why are local councils being held to a different standard?” he asked. “There’s nothing in the Supreme Court judgment that supports this. The CBN’s role should be to facilitate, not obstruct.”

Adegoke expressed suspicion that the resistance might be politically motivated. “One might even be suspecting that probably some state governors might be behind this strategy of wanting to defeat the Supreme Court judgement.

“They have been fiercely opposed to the implementation of judgement and for the CBN to be coming up with this is actually highly suspicious.”

Despite most local governments already opening accounts with the CBN, the demand for audited reports has halted progress. Adegoke urged the CBN to “do the needful.”

He said, “I’m aware that majority of the local government have even opened their accounts so after opening the account and coming up with another condition it is a deficit effort to make sure that this effort of the Supreme Court would not be implemented.

He further explained that the Attorney General Federation has warned that this would be met with severe consequences. “No officer is above the law even if the state governors enjoy immunity they have a limit to their immunity, everybody would be out if the office one day and whatever we do in the office would definitely be called to account at a particular point in time so the condition placed by the CBN I don’t think it’s necessary and have but really seen a statutory requirement that placed thus directly on the local government before they could access their funds.”

He emphasised that the situation has prompted legal action by the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), both of which have taken steps in filling an action. “I’m equally aware that ALGON, Association of Local Government of Nigeria has also filled an action at the federal high court while these are steps that are necessary constitutionally to protect their interest I want to believe that it is more or less trying to re-invent by forcing the association to re-invent the will of accessing the funds that the Supreme Court should be made available to them.”

Adegoke questioned why enforcement suits were necessary at all, saying, “Why should there be an action to compel enforcement of a judgement already delivered by the Supreme Court? Why should there be an action to make sure that authorities would do the needful in implementing a judgement delivered by the Supreme Court when the constitution itself in Section 287 states that implementation of judgement of all courts would be a responsibility of all persons and institutions in Nigeria.

“CBN is an institution, the office of the Accountant General is an institution established by the constitution and to that extent there are amiable and obligated to carry out any judgement delivered by a court of law in Nigeria not to talk about the Apex court.”

He urged President Bola Tinubu to intervene if institutions continue to delay, saying, “This circumstance, I believe that it might require the intervention of the President to compel the institutions involved to do the needful.”

Erizia Rubyjeana

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