The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre, RULAAC has described as a welcome development, the Supreme Court’s judgement on the financial autonomy of the local governments in Nigeria.
The Executive Director, RULAAC, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma who stated this in a statement in Lagos on Friday, however, posited that the challenge remained how to free the State Independent Electoral Commissions, SIECs from the control of state governors even as he argued that “If they are not truly independent, this welcomed reform introduced by the Supreme Court ruling will be of no effect as has been tightly pointed out.”
He observed that while the judgment was a huge positive milestone in Nigeria’s democratic development, its value would be completely lost if SIECs were not also “rescued” from governors.
“SIECs are now their only remaining route to perpetuating the illegalities that the Supreme Court dealt with yesterday. In the least, funding of SIECs must be charged to the Federation Account and released directly to them, the public must be involved in screening nominees by providing character references, and the power of SIECs to hire and fire staff must be guaranteed”, he stated.
Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, Executive Director, RULAAC.
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