… lawmaker, lawyer disagree
Anambra State Commissioner for Information, Dr Law Mefor, has stated that the Anambra State Local Goverment Administration Law, 2024 was made in obedience to section 7 of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria which imposes on state legislature the duty to make laws for the administration of local government system.
Making his submissions on AIT programme, “People, Politics & Power” while discussing “Obstacles To LG Autonomy”, Dr Mefor explained that the law is intended to provide legal framework that will allow local and state governments pull resources together to address common needs (primary education, healthcare and pension funds etc) as states and the federal government do in addressing insecurity in the nation, calling on people to see the necessity and nobility of the new state law.
The Senator representing Anambra North, Dr. Tony Nwoye, has argued that the section 7 of the 1999 constitution didn’t envisage that any state assembly will go and make laws that will be inconsistent with the constitution, adding that the supreme court had interpreted the section and resolved that no state assembly can make laws that vitiate section 162 subsections 3 and 5 that grant full financial autonomy to the local government, describing the new Anambra law as obnoxious, especially in sections 13, 14 and 16.
He appealed to Governor Chukwuma Soludo to allow Anambra local government function by withdrawing the new law.
Contributing, a Lagos-based lawyer, Gbenga Owar, called on the political gladiators to realize that breaching the rule of law and treating the judgement of the supreme court with impunity and disrespect are not in the interest of the nation.
He appealed to the Anambra State Government to quickly withdraw and repeal the law to ensure that others don’t copy it, insisting that what the Anambra State House of Assembly did was inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution as interpreted by the supreme court in its recent judgement on local government autonomy.