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By John Ogunsemore
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Jibrin Okutepa, said the Supreme Court should engage in more progressive and purposeful interpretation of the Nigerian constitution and laws to save democracy.
Okutepa said Thursday’s Supreme Court judgement which granted financial autonomy to local governments is a demonstration of the apex court exercising its power as a policy court for Nigeria’s stability and development.
“The Supreme Court is also a court of law and policy court.
“In its interpretative jurisdiction as a court of law and court of policy, the Supreme Court has, on many occasions, rendered judgements and decisions for stability and development of Nigeria.
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“One of such decisions rendered on the 11th day of July 2024 was the local governments autonomy case.
“In that case, Agim JSC, who wrote the lead judgment, was quoted as saying: ‘Ordinarily, the Nigerian constitution permits the federal government to pay local government allocations directly to them or through the state governments.
“However, the demand for justice requires a progressive interpretation of the law. It is the position of this court that the federation can pay local government allocations directly to the local governments or through the states.
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“In this case, since paying them through the states has not worked, justice demands that local government allocations from the federation account should henceforth be paid directly to the local governments.”
Okutepa said this pronouncement by the apex court is rooted in the progressive canon of interpretations.
“This interpretation done by the Supreme Court, as quote hereof, was rooted in the knowledge and understanding that the system of payment stipulated in the constitution has made local governments in Nigeria worse off in terms of financial autonomy and even development.”
The senior lawyer noted that many people in positions of power do not care about the suffering of the people, making the purpose of government almost defeated.
He stated that the reason local governments were created was to bring governance and developments to the people but that purpose has been largely defeated in the running of local governments since advent of “civilian dictatorship called democracy” in 1999.
Okutepa said, “As a policy court, the Supreme Court needs to engage in more progressive and purposeful interpretations of our law and constitution to save democracy.
“There is a need for the Supreme Court to rise to the occasion to make democracy flourish by giving interpretations to our electoral jurisprudence and laws that respect sovereignty of the people rather than any narrow interpretation that perpetuate those who engage in wrongful conduct to continue lording it over the affairs of the people.
“Those who have no respect for the sovereignty of the people and the people should not be aided and abetted with narrow interpretations of laws to keep them in power.”
