Senate calls for recomposition of FAAC to include

•Approves bill to upgrade Yabatech to university

From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja

The Senate has asked the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, to ensure that representatives of Local Government Council (LGC) per state and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Councils are included in the Federation Account Allocations Committee (FAAC) to represent their interests.

This followed the passage of a motion sponsored by the Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, on the urgent need to alter the composition of FAAC by including representatives of local governments and area councils, yesterday.

Presenting the motion on behalf of the Deputy Senate President who was presiding over plenary,  Isah Jibrin noted that LGC, as established by Section 7 (1) Constitution 1999, is the third tier of the federation and, therefore, to share directly in federation account allocations as benefitting entities.

Citing the recent Supreme Court ruling that states do not have rights or interests in allocations to the LGCs from the Federation Account, he called for the harmonisation of different sections relating to payment to LGCs to provide for their inclusion.

“The Supreme Court has further recognised that the approach of a direct payment to the LGCs will achieve the intention and purpose of the Constitution and accord with the smooth running of the system of paying the LGCs their allocations from the Federation Account.

“The Supreme Court has also pronounced to the effect that paying the LGCs through the States of the Federation has not worked, therefore justice demands that LGCs allocations from the Federation Account should henceforth be paid directly to the LGCs.”

He observed that Section 5 of the Allocation of Revenue (Federation Account, etc) Act 1981 prescribes the membership of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to be only representatives of the Federal Government and state governments to the exclusion of the third tier of government, i.e. local government council which is inconsistent with the current interpretation of Sections 162(5) and (6) CFRN 1999 as recently determined by the July 2024 Supreme Court judgement.

The senator noted that it is imperative to urgently harmonise the provisions of Section 5 of the Act with the Constitution and its current interpretation by the Supreme Court.

“Representatives of the states had always represented LGCs at FAAC, however, in light of the current position of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court , it has become imperative that a representative of LGCs per state and area councils be nominated to represent their interests at FAAC,” he concluded.

Also in plenary, the Senate passed a bill to establish the Yaba Federal University of Technology and Vocational Studies, Yaba, Lagos State, through second reading.

Sponsored by the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, the Bill makes provisions for the management and administration and other matters related to the institution.

It was referred to the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions for further legislative processing.