Senate Demands LGs Be Included In FAAC Allocation

The Nigerian Senate has urged the Federal Government to guarantee the direct participation of every local government area (LGA) nationwide, as well as each area council within the Federal Capital Territory, in the decision-making processes of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

In a resolution passed during plenary, the Senate further mandated that the directive be formally conveyed to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, who also presides over FAAC, for swift execution.

This legislative intervention, framed as a measure to deepen constitutional adherence and reinforce fiscal accountability at the grassroots, was propelled by a motion championed by Senate Deputy President Barau Jibrin, representing Kano North. Jibrin argued that local governments, as enshrined in Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), constitute a fully recognized tier of governance and, as such, deserve unmediated access to allocations from the Federation Account.

He stressed that the exclusion of LGAs from these critical fiscal deliberations undermines the constitutional safeguards designed to empower local authorities and hampers transparency in the equitable distribution of national revenue.

The Senate cited the Supreme Court’s ruling, which clarified that state governments act merely as conduits for transferring LG allocations and hold no ownership or discretionary powers over those funds.

In their deliberations, the lawmakers underscored a longstanding gap in Nigeria’s fiscal governance architecture, noting that the composition of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) remains skewed in favor of federal and state actors, with local government authorities conspicuously absent from the table.

They pointed to Section 5 of the Allocation of Revenue (Federation Account, etc.) Act of 1981, which explicitly omits local governments from direct participation in FAAC deliberations—an omission that has now been rendered obsolete by a pivotal Supreme Court ruling in July 2024. That judgment, the Senate argued, firmly established the constitutional entitlement of local governments to independent fiscal representation, rendering the 1981 Act incompatible with Nigeria’s extant legal framework.

The upper chamber further emphasized that, although state governments have historically acted as proxies for LGAs during allocation deliberations, the evolving judicial clarity now demands a recalibration of the process. Direct representation, they contended, is now indispensable not only to defend the fiscal autonomy of local governments but also to foster greater transparency and fairness in the disbursement of national revenues.

Africa Today News, New York