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• says I’ve the knife and yam
From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
President Bola Tinubu on Thursday evening at All Progressives Congress (APC) 15th meeting of the National Executive Committee in Abuja, threatened to issue an executive order that would directly channel Local Government Area (LGA) funds to councils, bypassing state governors in line with the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on fiscal federalism.
According to him, “The Supreme Court has capped it for you again, saying, ‘give them their money directly.’ If you wait for my Executive Order, because I have the knife, I have the yam, I will cut it.”
The President continued, “I’m just being very respectful and understanding with my governors. Otherwise, if you don’t start to implement it, FAAC after FAAC, you will see.”
President Tinubu’s remarks build on the Supreme Court’s landmark July 11, 2024, judgment, which sided with the Federal Government’s suit to secure financial autonomy for local governments.
In a unanimous ruling, a seven-justice panel of the apex court deemed it unconstitutional for state governments to control or withhold funds allocated to local councils.
The decision mandates direct disbursements from the Federation Account to LGAs, as outlined in Sections 162(5-8) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)—a provision long undermined by states via joint account mechanisms.
The President hailed the party’s dominance, describing it as “the largest, great party” internationally acknowledged for its achievements. He urged party leaders to remain vigilant at the local level, emphasising that LGAs represent “the space where we have no governance” without proper structure. “I’ve addressed the states, the local government and ward level. Just be expandable. And we can easily rely on our state governors but what about the states where we have no governors?” Tinubu stated, underscoring the need for robust party machinery to produce governors.
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Tinubu recounted pre-election hardships under previous administration’s reforms, including naira redesign and fuel subsidy removal, as divine tests overcome by faith. “There was a wild bush fire. The currency redesign. The queue at the petrol station. So many people died. People not able to eat one meal a day, because of lack of money just for one election,” he recalled, crediting God for his elections and APC’s victories across states.
Beyond LGAs, Tinubu again endorsed state police to combat insecurity, directing the National Assembly to summon the IG: “The state police like I mentioned yesterday, I did today. National Assembly, please summon the IG and start looking at the constitution. And which way to is to control and prevent abuses. We are going for state police.” He affirmed commitment to forest rangers, declaring, “We will defeat those terrorists and bandits. We must.”
On party inclusivity, he praised Niger State’s model of female deputy governors and LG chairs, urging emulation: “I congratulate from in Niger States. I saw the programme where he has all the deputy governor and chairman, as a woman. All the chairman in the States. A woman.”
Tinubu supported National Assembly bills for women’s accommodation in the constitution but rejected federal overreach on lotteries, calling it a “residual matter” under state exclusive lists.
