26 Months After Judgement, Governors Continue to Strangle LGs, Fuelling Insecurity

NULGE: No local govt currently receives allocation directly from federation account
State control of funds weakens service delivery, CSO declares
RULAAC: Councils should be allowed to control their accounts, statutory allocations

Sunday Ehigiator

Twenty-six months after the Supreme Court affirmed financial autonomy for Nigeria’s 774 local government councils, governors are still holding councils in a stranglehold, with labour government workers and civil society groups warning that continued state control of funds meant for the third-tier of government was undermining grassroots development and fuelling insecurity.
Despite the landmark judgment, stakeholders say genuine autonomy remains largely elusive, with no local government currently receiving its allocation directly from the Federation Account, while governors continue to wield significant influence over council finances, leadership and elections.

Speaking with THISDAY, the President-General of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) and National Treasurer of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Aliyu Haruna Kankara, described the situation as unfortunate, while also revealing that no local government currently receives funds directly from the Federation Account.
“It’s very unfortunate that after Supreme Court judgment we are still unable to direct for the implementation of the local government autonomy.

“As I’m speaking to you now, no local government in Nigeria is receiving funds directly from the Federation Account. And as you know, a Supreme Court pronouncement is a law. So that means 26 months after, the federal government is still violating the law by not implementing the judgment.
“It is very unfortunate, but here we are. That’s why we have been calling on the federal government to implement the judgment. We expect a democratically elected government that has respect for the rule of law, and that’s why we are still calling on the government to do that.”

The Supreme Court had in July 2024 ruled in favour of financial autonomy for local governments, in a case instituted by the Federal Government against the 36 state governors.
The judgment was widely hailed as a major constitutional intervention aimed at strengthening the third tier of government and ending what critics described as the longstanding practice of state governments controlling funds allocated to local councils.
However, Kankara said the implementation gap remained a major concern.

He disclosed that NULGE had written to relevant federal authorities to draw their attention to the need to enforce the judgment.
He added: “Yes, we have written to the Minister of Justice. We have written to the Minister of Finance to draw their attention to the fact that this has become a law. It’s no longer about somebody who wants to grant local government autonomy or not. Now it’s a matter of law. So, we have written to them. We are still expecting to hear from them.”

Kankara, however, acknowledged that there had been some progress on the political aspect of local government administration, noting that caretaker committees were no longer operating in the states, following the federal government’s earlier decision to withhold allocations from states without elected councils.

“However, you could remember some time back, the prior government decided to withhold allocation in any state that was having caretaker committees administering local government. So, at that time, most of the states that were having caretaker committees, they decided to rush and conduct local government elections. At the moment, we don’t have caretaker committees at the local government,” he said.

He stressed that the Supreme Court judgment was primarily concerned with financial autonomy, while administrative and political autonomy would require further constitutional changes.
“You see, the Supreme Court judgment, it’s more on financial autonomy. As a union based in the local government, we have been campaigning for financial, administrative and political autonomy to local government councils.

“We are yet to get political autonomy and administrative autonomy because it requires constitutional amendment.
“But thank God the Supreme Court had passed judgment on financial autonomy, and they have also done so much to ensure they protect the political leadership at the local government level by ensuring that the provision of Section 7 of the Constitution must always be respected. That is ensuring a democratically elected council at the local government at all times.

“My standpoint is that we need full autonomy. When I say full autonomy, I mean financial autonomy, administrative autonomy and political autonomy. And if we really want our local government system to work efficiently and effectively, we have to grant them full autonomy.

“Without full autonomy, there is no way the local government system can function effectively. We, as people that are working at the local government level, know very well that it is only full autonomy that can make our local government system work very well.”
Also speaking, the Executive Director, Citizens Center for Integrated Development and Social Rights, Dr. Emeka Ononamadu, described the situation as a serious governance failure, arguing that Nigerians were being deprived of the benefits that should accrue from resources allocated to local governments.

“First is that Nigerians are being cruelly cheated and robbed, just completely,” Ononamadu said.
He cited the example of a local government which he said received an average of N500 million monthly but had little to show for the huge resources reportedly accruing to it.

“I know a local government where community members are challenging the government accounts for over 10 months that has come to that. A local government that gets an average of N500 million monthly, a local government that gets about N500 million monthly, you know that he gets about N6 billion.
“And that local government has stayed there for two years, but you cannot see a single project of just N115 million in that local government.

“And this is something that is replicated across the 774 local government areas.”
Ononamadu said the autonomy question went beyond finances, identifying three critical areas that needed to be addressed.
“One is the fiscal autonomy they require. The second is the administrative autonomy which they require. The third is the political autonomy. They need to conduct their elections and set themselves free. But it is not happening anywhere,” he said.

He argued that excessive state control over local governments had weakened the councils and contributed to poor service delivery.
“Ninety per cent of the local government agencies are in the pocket of the government that is moving that space, and that is why it appears that governors are even more powerful than the President of the Republic,” he said.
Ononamadu further alleged that local governments had been unable to undertake significant projects independently because of the level of state influence over their finances.

“During our campaign, we did a research and discovered that you cannot find a single project of more than N100 million in any local government across the country being sponsored by the local government itself.
“Rather, what you will see is local government having some criminal partnership which they say through which the governor siphons them, and then a little either white elephant project or overpriced project and projects that don’t mean anything to the people.”
He maintained that stronger local government autonomy could also help address insecurity.
“Every local government now has the capacity to fund their local government police effectively and stop this corruption and stop this insecurity.

“We have said it that if you allow local government to use their money, insecurity will disappear from Nigeria overnight. It will, because there is no local government now that is formed based on what they receive monthly.”
Asked whether he had evidence that allocations were being returned to governors after reaching local government accounts, Ononamadu said forensic audits would reveal the movement of funds.

“It goes to the local government, but they go and pack the money and send it in dollars and send back to governors. And that is why the dollar is still where it is,” he alleged further.
“That is why the primary health centres are not working. That is why basic education is not working,” he said.
He called for a forensic examination of local government finances, arguing that such an exercise would expose financial irregularities.

“If you do a forensic audit, all the governors will go to prison,” he alleged.
He also advocated stronger political and administrative autonomy, alongside fiscal independence.
“The local government autonomy that has to do with their political autonomy should be handed over to them. Two, the local government administrative autonomy should be handed over to them. The governors have no business.

“And number three, I talked about fiscal autonomy. The fiscal autonomy should be that the local government should not be forced to go into audit matters, to go into alliance with the governors on how to spend local government money.”
Ononamadu insisted that local government autonomy was central to addressing Nigeria’s development challenges.
“If any politician wants this country to be free from the present adversity, to be free from the present insecurity, to be free from the present abject poverty, it is simply to ensure that the local government autonomy takes place,” he said.

For the Executive Director, New Ethics for Empowerment and Development Initiatives (NEEDIN), Kano, Peter Hassan Tijani, the lack of clear information on how local government allocations are currently being disbursed was itself a major problem.
Tijani said civil society organisations had not done enough to follow up on the Supreme Court judgment and demand answers from government authorities.

“For me, it’s an issue of concern because according to the rulings of the Supreme Court, by now we should have gotten reasonable improvements, but actually nothing is happening.”

He said civil society needed to intensify citizens’ engagement to ensure that financial and administrative autonomy translated into tangible development.

“We really have not taken up this matter at our various states to ask questions, to demand for their actions in ensuring that this accountability framework or the autonomy is effective.

“Because we fought for it. It’s something that we have been saying over the years, that local governments need their autonomy. And now they have gotten it and yet nothing is really happening.”

He also identified the continued influence of governors over local government elections as a major obstacle.

“Another challenge that we have is the control of governors, especially when it comes to elections, local government elections. It is the governors that control it.

“So, to some level, again, they have control over local government chairmen and administrators of local government. When you say a local government is autonomous financially, but then there is no mechanism outside the influence of the governor that brings them into power, it begs the question how truly autonomous they are.”

Tijani said civil society organisations were themselves uncertain about whether local government funds were now being paid directly into council accounts.

“I think that is where, for us in civil society, we are lost in this. Because we really have not followed up to know if this money is really getting to these people. We don’t know if the local government have their separate account now or is it going to that joint account, state government joint account.

“So, this, I think, that we are not really aware. And to some extent we have heard from, we are not sure of this information, that some state government will return the money to the local government. That in other way round, they will return the money to the state government. So we are not very sure of all of these things.”

He therefore called for stronger collaboration between the media and civil society to establish the facts and hold government accountable.

Similarly, the Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Okechukwu Nwanguma, said genuine local government autonomy remained largely elusive 26 months after the Supreme Court judgment.

According to him, the judgment was intended to end state control over local government funds and the replacement of elected councils with caretaker arrangements, but the gap between the ruling and realities on the ground remained troubling.

Nwanguma questioned whether councils were receiving their statutory allocations directly and whether elected chairmen were exercising genuine financial and administrative independence.

He also warned that the conduct of local government elections by state-controlled electoral structures could undermine political autonomy.

“Merely replacing a caretaker chairman with someone bearing the title of ‘elected chairman’ does not necessarily amount to democratic local government.

“When chairmen emerge through political structures substantially controlled by governors and ruling parties, they remain beholden to the political benefactors who facilitated their emergence. You cannot build genuine local government autonomy on political dependency.”

Nwanguma argued that autonomy should not be limited to financial independence, insisting that electoral, political, administrative and institutional autonomy were equally important.

“Financial autonomy is essential, but it is only one component of genuine local government autonomy. There must also be electoral autonomy, political autonomy, administrative autonomy and institutional accountability. Otherwise, we could merely replace one form of control with another.”

He called for a comprehensive, publicly accessible, state-by-state audit of the implementation of the Supreme Court judgment.

“Nigerians deserve answers to straightforward questions: Are allocations going directly to local governments? Which councils control their own accounts? Which state governments continue to exercise control over council funds?” he asked.

He further demanded clarification on the measures taken by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Accountant-General of the Federation and other relevant institutions to enforce the judgment.

“A Supreme Court judgment cannot be treated as an advisory opinion,” Nwanguma said.

Ultimately, he argued that genuine autonomy must combine independence with accountability.

“It means citizens genuinely choosing their local government representatives through credible elections. It means elected chairmen deriving their legitimacy from voters rather than political godfathers.

“It means councils exercising lawful control over their statutory resources without governors determining what they receive or how they spend it. And it means those councils being fully accountable to the citizens for every naira they receive and spend.”

He said the central question 26 months after the judgment was no longer whether Nigeria recognised local government autonomy in principle, but whether the country was prepared to enforce it consistently.