SUPREME COURT GIVES STATE GOVERNORS 7-DAY ULTIMATUM OVER LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY AS LABOUR BEGINS STRIKE. GOVERNMENT REACTS.

The Nigerian Supreme Court on Thursday, May 30^th  2024 gave the 36 state governors of the federation, seven days, to file their defense in the suit brought against them by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).

The apex court also mandated the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice to file a reply within two days upon receiving the governors’ defenses.

The order was issued by Justice Garba Lawal in Abuja on Thursday May 30^th 2024 during the hearing of an application for an expedited timeline, presented by the Attorney General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagebemi, SAN.

Fagbemi, in a suit marked SC/CV/343/2024, on behalf of the Federal government, dragged the 36 state governors in the country to court for seeking full autonomy of local governments.

The AGF sued them through their respective State Attorneys General.

The AGF sued them through their respective State Attorneys General.

The AGF, in the suit predicated on 27 grounds, urged the Apex Court to issue an order, prohibiting state governors from unilateral, arbitrary, and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders for local governments.

The FG, further contended that Nigeria as a federation, is a creation of the 1999 constitution with the President, as the Head of the Federal Executive arm of the Federation and has sworn to uphold and give effects to the provisions of the Constitution.

The suit accused the state governors of gross misconduct and abuse of power

The AGF had requested the court to compel the Governors to file their responses within five days due to the urgency and significance of the local government autonomy suit. While the Governors did not oppose the expedited timeline, they asked for 15 days to file their defenses.

Justice Lawal, leading a seven-member panel of Supreme Court justices, emphasized the national importance and urgency of the suit and noted the lack of objection from the states. Consequently, the court reduced the filing time.

All processes must be filed and exchanged within the designated timeframe, with the hearing scheduled for June 13.

Furthermore, Justice Lawal directed that fresh hearing notices be served to the eight states—Borno, Kano, Kogi, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, and Sokoto—whose Attorneys General were absent from Thursday’s proceedings despite being served with notices.

The Attorney General of Ebonyi state and the chairman of, the body of state Attorneys-General, Dr Ben Odo, speaking on behalf of the other AGs, said they had a meeting and he has their consent of no objection to the suit.

“I have the consent of all the Attorneys General not to oppose the motion”

Onyechi Ikpeazu, (SAN), who represented the Anambra State Attorney General, asked for more time.

AGF however asked the court to give them seven days as nine days have already elapsed.

 “We have filed our written address, from the nature of the case, it requires urgency and I am happy to report that there is no counter affidavit. I want to state that the importance of this matter underscores all the state of the various Attorney-Generals of the state,” he said.

The court however gave the state governors seven days to file their responses and proceeded to adjourn the suit till June 13 for a hearing.

.In another development the three-legged discussions between the Federal Government, Organized Private Sector represented by the Employers Consultative Assembly and Labour seemed to have finally collapsed.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have declared a nationwide strike beginning from Monday, June 3rd, 2024 over the tripartite committee’s inability to agree on a new minimum wage and hike in electricity tariff.

The President of the TUC Festus Osifo announced the strike at a joint news conference with the leadership of the NLC in Abuja on Friday.

According to the labour leaders, the decision follows the expiration of an earlier request to the Federal Government to conclude all negotiations for a new minimum wage before the end of May.

“In light of this persistent inaction, we, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), hereby issue a notice of commencement of an indefinite nationwide strike to the Federal Government,” Osifo said.

“We reiterate that since the National Minimum Wage negotiation exercise has not been concluded and the agreed wage passed into law; the hike in electricity tariff has not been reversed and the categorization of consumers into Bands has not stopped as demanded; Nigerian workers are compelled by these failures to embark on an indefinite nationwide industrial action beginning on Monday, the 3rd of June, 2024 to press home our demands.

The organised labour had once pulled out of the negotiation and rejected two Federal Government offers, the latest being N60,000. They are insisting on N497,000 as minimum wage.

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Since the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira, the cost of living in Nigeria has reached new highs, heightening calls for a new minimum wage.

In the wake of the development, labour leaders have reeled out several measures including a new minimum wage, alternative modes of transportation, and others to cushion the impact of the subsidy removal.

The government later set up a 36-member tripartite Committee, comprising  labour leaders-12, government officials -12, and the organised private sector-12 to negotiate a new minimum wage.

Despite several meetings, the committee failed to reach a consensus, prompting the recent strike action by the labour leaders. The Federal Government is yet to comment on the TUC and NLC’s latest move.

In its reaction to the call for a strike, the Federal Government has asked the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, along with their affiliates not to embark on their planned indefinite strike action and instead return to the negotiating table.

Should the government accede to Labour’s demand of paying N494, 000 as minimum wage, the government said it would cost N9.5trillion, which the economy cannot afford.

In a last minute effort to dissuade the labour unions from embarking on the strike, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris addressed an emergency press briefing in Abuja last night.

The labour unions, he said, are the only hold-outs among the three parties involved in the tripartite negotiation on the new minimum wage in settling for N60,000.

Both the Federal Government and the Organized Private Sector, he said, have agreed on N60,000, while labour has rejected the N60,000 proposal.

He said: “The FG therefore, calls on all parties to embrace reasonable and realistic dialogue that will result in the proper resolution of the impasse.

“I am therefore appealing to the Labour to return to the negotiation table in the interest of Nigeria.

“Indefinite strike action is not the solution. It will rather complicate the situation. Our appeal is that they should shelve that strike, rethink the strike because it is not in the interest of Nigerians.

Idris said the N494,000 minimum wage being demanded by the labour will cost the government about N9.5trillion to cater for about 1.2 million workers, pleading with the labour to put the interest of the other 200million Nigerians in consideration.

Explaining how the federal government settled for a 100% increase, he said, “On Tuesday, 28th May 2024, the Tripartite Committee met and the FG made the offer of N60,000 per month, to workers.