A meeting between the organised labour and President Bola Tinubu on Thursday has spurred a scheduled gathering of governors today to adopt a common position.
The governors, who would meet physically, have slated to discuss the financial autonomy granted by the Supreme Court to the 774 local governments in the country. Sources at the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) Secretariat said the position of the governors on financial autonomy was due to the constitutional issues that arose because of the Supreme Court decision.
According to a source at the NGF secretariat, Section 162(6) of the 1999 Constitution states that “each state shall maintain a specific account to be called State-Joint Local Government Account into which shall be paid all allocations to the local government councils of the state from the Federation Account and from the government of the state.”
The source said much as the governors had said that they have no objection to the Supreme Court judgement, the development has thrown up constitutional issues that must be addressed. Some governors from the PDP were asking for a constitutional reform to address the perceived constitutional issues thrown up by the section. 162 (6) of the 1999 constitution.
On the Thursday meeting between President Tinubu and organized labour, the governors are expected to submit a unified position on the minimum wage to the meeting.
