LGs’ll start receiving direct monthly FAAC payments January —Dare

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Sunday Dare

By Mark Longyen

All Nigeria’s 774 local governments will start receiving direct federal allocations from the Federal Allocation Account Committee (FAAC) beginning from the end of this month.

Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, made this known during an interview on Arise News Television live programme.

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He said that President Bola Tinubu was committed to implementing the Supreme Court’s landmark judgement of July 2024, which declared state control over local government funds unconstitutional.

According to him, the President is absolutely committed to ensuring the autonomy of local governments is not jeopardized in any way whatsoever.

“We have a President who ensures local government autonomy.

“I spoke to a local government chairman recently, who said, ‘Oh, I will be getting N2.9bn, instead of the N200m I was getting before’.

“From the end of this month, the local governments will receive their money directly,” he said.

According to the presidential spokesman, the current focus should shift more towards state and local governments.

He said that, for instance, one state collected N499bn in 2024, which is four times its previous amount, but has not shown any noticeable improvements.

“Blaming the Federal Government all the time, I think we need to revert it. One state last year alone collected N499bn, almost four times what it was collecting before.

“Now, go to that state and see if there is any improvement, N499bn is not a small amount of money.

“The framers of our constitution, who said we should have the federal, state and local governments, it’s for a reason.

“The Federal Government cannot take care of the entire country.

“You see the breakdown of the FAAC. Now, what are the states doing?

“We can talk about what the Federal Government is doing, the conversation should go to the states and others,” Dare said.

“The Federal Government collects the allocation, it doesn’t take the 100 per cent, but distributes it.

“We have to find out what the states are doing with the allocation.

“So we should put our radar on the states and local governments and, of course, the Federal Government has its own responsibilities,” he added.

It would be recalled that on July 11, 2024, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous judgment, faulted the receiving of local governments’ monthly statutory allocations by state governments.

The apex court therefore ordered the direct payment of the funds to the local governments.

“The state’s retention of the local government funds is unconstitutional,” Justice Emmanuel Agbim, who delivered the landmark judgement held.

Periscope International reports that the judgment was sequel to a suit filed on behalf of the Federal Government by Chief Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.

Fagbemi had argued and prayed for an order mandating the direct payment of local government funds to them to ensure the financial autonomy of the nation’s 774 local government areas.

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