PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari appears to be on a coalition course with Nigeria's 36 state governors following plans to curtail their powers by making local government independent of state governments. 

At the moment, state governors wield unprecedented powers in Nigeria, having full control over local government despite it being a directly-elected third tier of government. Governors receive local government funds from the federal government is contravention of the international norm and dispense it as they see fit, determining what local governments can do. 

Aware of the anomaly this presents, President Buhari intends to remove local governments from the control of state governors by presenting an executive bill to the National Assembly that will guarantee their autonomy that granting autonomy to councils is inimical to federalism. 

An aide to one governor said:  “You know the issue has been on for a long time. If the president thinks otherwise, he may have his reasons but you know the governors too will fight back. 

 "It might not be a confrontation but they can explore the court option. Let the Supreme Court decide the matter since it is between states and the federal government.” 

Bayo Okauru, the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) director-general, said that the forum under the former Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi, was not in support of local government autonomy. He added that the governors are against it as there is no country in the world that has three federating units. 

After President Buhari's speech, some of the state governors put calls through to the newly elected NGF chairman and Zamfara State governor Alhaji Abdulazziz Yari and urged him to immediately move to Abuja to confer with the president unofficially on the matter. As a result, Governor Yari shunned all planned post-inauguration events in the state capital, Gusau and rushed to Abuja. 

Association of Local Government of Nigeria chairman, Micah Jiba, had recently insisted that local governments should be allowed to draw their allocations directly from the federation account. Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees had argued for the same, with its president Ibrahim Khaleel, saying the union would continue to fight for local government autonomy. 

Earlier this year, he two chambers of the National Assembly had during the amendment to the constitution, granted the 774 councils in Nigeria financial and administrative autonomy through the amendment of section 7. Also, the 2014 National Conference report recommended autonomy for the local governments but at least 23 of the 36 states’ Houses of Assembly rejected the move under pressure from their governors.