Constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof. Mike Ozekhome, has affirmed that the recent Supreme Court judgment interpreting Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution is both binding and enforceable.
Ozekhome addressed concerns from the public regarding the Court’s ruling on the sharing procedure between the Federal Government, states, and Local Government Councils (LGCs).
Ozekhome clarified that the Supreme Court’s interpretation takes precedence over the written provisions of the Constitution.
He emphasized that the law, in any form, remains inert until interpreted by a court of law. Consequently, the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Section 162, which mandates direct payment to LGCs rather than through state accounts, must be followed.
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“A law is only what the courts interpret it to be, not what it says on bare paper. That was why Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, a very influential civil rights Jurist, Brevet Colonel during the American Civil War and longest serving Justice of the US Supreme Court (1902-1932), who retired from the US Supreme Court at 90, once famously declared that, “the prophecies of what the courts will do in fact, and nothing more pretentious, are what I mean by the law”.
“In other words, the law (whether constitutional, substantive, statutory, or adjectival) remains what it is-inanimate and dead on paper-until the life and the oxygen of interpretation are breathed into it by a court of law.
“Consequently, it is thus the interpretation which was given by the Supreme Court to the entire section 162 of the Constitution on the sharing procedure between the Federal government, states and the LGCs, and not the bare provisions of the Constitution that prevails.
Regarding enforceability, Ozekhome pointed to Section 287(1) of the Constitution, which mandates that Supreme Court decisions are to be enforced throughout the Federation.
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‘The answer is also in the affirmative. Section 287(1) of the 1999 Constitution comes to our rescue by providing that “the decisions of the Supreme Court shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons, and by courts of subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Supreme Court”.
“Even if the Supreme Court was wrong in its interpretation of section 162 dealing with the State Joint Local Government Account, the judgement remains binding on all and for all times.It is only an amendment of the Constitution under section 9 thereof that can override the decision.
He noted that, even if the interpretation is disputed, the judgment remains binding unless overturned by a constitutional amendment.
Ozekhome further called for the Federal Government, states, and LGCs to convene and establish clear procedures for implementing the Supreme Court’s ruling.
He stressed that state governors must comply with the judgment and cease controlling LGC funds, a practice the Court sought to rectify.
Ozekhome concluded by urging all relevant authorities to immediately enforce the judgment, reiterating his support for the Supreme Court’s interpretation and its role in promoting fiscal federalism in Nigeria.