By Bassey Udo
The partial compliance with the Supreme Court ruling granting autonomy to Local Councils through mandatory allocations of revenues from the Federation Accounts directly to that tier of government has been blamed on corruption, undue interferences by the states and general lack of the political will to do right thing in the interest of the people.
These were the views widely canvassed on Tuesday in Abuja by most of the participants in a policy dialogue organised by Agora Policy, a Nigeria non-profit think tank on the theme, “Local Governance Reforms: A Year After Supreme Court”s Judgement.” The event was organized in collaboration with MacArthur Foundation, The Cable, Centre for Fiscal Transparency and African Cities Research Consortium.
In his keynote address at the event, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, disclosed that although the Federal Government has complied with an aspect of the Supreme Court ruling that demanded allocations from the federation account directly to local governments, it was yet to fully ensure such remittances reach the properly elected officials as required by the Constitution.
He said discussions were ongoing between relevant federal authorities and other stakeholders on full compliance with the apex court’s directive on the aspect of paying allocations directly into the Local Councils’ accounts.
Since 1999, a new report cited by Agora Policy has revealed that about N35.2 trillion was the share of allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to the 774 local governments in the country
The latest allocation was in June 2025, where FAAC distributed N445 billion to local governments.
Amid these huge allocations, many Nigerians say no commensurate evidence of grassroots development is there to show, primarily as a result of non-compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
While some blame the situation on challenges bordering on the interference of the various state governments in the management of the allocations to the Local Government, corruption, and weak systems of accountability, the World Bank puts it squarely on lack of the political will by the government to do the right thing in the interest of the people.
Prof. Remi Aiyede of the University of Ibadan who described the Supreme Court’s ruling of July 2024 granting financial autonomy to local governments as a pivotal moment in the country’s political history, said what obtains in the last one year was far from what was intended.
Aiyede who spoke on “Reflections on Five Decades of Local Government Reforms in Nigeria,” noted that the apex court’s ruling not only mandated federal allocations to be transferred directly to local councils, but barred state governors from interfering in their administration, by dissolving elected councils.
“The apex court ruled that governors must not impose caretaker committees, or withhold local government funds; that allocations from the Federation Account must flow directly to LGAs, while affirming autonomy of that tier of government,* he said.
He identified major areas of concerns to include what he referred to as “enduring dilemmas around autonomy vs state control; funding vs accountability, and democracy vs. political interference,” and
criticized the role of State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) in predetermining elections outcomes.
Since the 2024 Supreme Court ruling, he said 26 states have organised council polls in which the ruling political parties recorded 100 percent victories in most of them.
In her goodwill message, Lead Governance Specialist from the World Bank, Deborah Isser, blamed the non-implementation of the Supreme Court’s ruling granting political and financial autonomy to local governments on lack of political will by the federal and state governments to do the right thing in the interest of the people.
Isser said some State governors simply do not want to lose the power they have over the people, or their control of the budget of local governments.
For others, Isser said they were primarily concerned about a lack of capacity, systems and accountability mechanisms in local governments, as they don’t trust local governments to do the right thing.
This, she pointed out, has created a vicious cycle of low trust, low capacity, which negatively impact development at the grassroots.
Although local governments, in principle, represent the closest authority to the people, and best positioned to make decisions that address local preferences and needs, she pointed out that in reality, federal systems have always been sites of contestation over power and resources.
These, she pointed out, have often resulted in mismatches between assignment of responsibilities, resources and capacities.
“This is not only in Nigeria – many countries have followed trajectories of decentralization and recentralization in ways that distort the ability of the lowest tier of government to function.
“The Supreme Court decision aimed to correct these distortions by interpreting the constitution as requiring the political and financial autonomy of local governments. Its implementation, however, has revealed that there are still disagreements about what exactly this means – what sort of supervision, oversight and functions can states exert over and on behalf of local governments? What requirements must be in place for local governments to receive funds directly? What policies and practices can ensure local government accountability?” she argued.
Submitting that the current situation has portrayed Nigeria as a country in crisis, in view of the country’s status among the bottom five in the world, in terms of maternal mortality and poverty rating, Isser proffered ways out of the local government dilemma.
“Rather than focus on constitutional debates, snap elections that meet the letter, but not the spirit of the judgment, and an endless labyrinth of requirements for opening bank accounts – we should focus on what it will take to make a major step change in the way the government provides basic services for the population,” she suggested.
“Local government has a critical role to play as the primary point of contact for citizens and service facilities and as an important source of funding for the frontline. For this, they need to have the trust of the population, capacity and accountability for their decisions and management of funds. And for services like health and education they will need to collaborate with states and the federal government to align planning, resources, policies and incentives to deliver.
Let’s keep the ultimate aim of government and governance in mind,” she added.
In her goodwill message, Cynthia Rowe of the British High Commission, Abuja said Nigeria can achieve effective local government administration if she addressed five issues, namely clarity of roles between states and local governments, strategic planning, citizen engagement, fiscal autonomy and strong democratic values.
The Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, who spoke as one of the panelists during the discussion session, called for strong participation of Nigerians in all local government elections, to ensure the best hands were involved in the administration of that tier of government.
Itodo revealed findings from the involvement of his group in recent elections showed that all council elections conducted in 14 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory prior to the apex court’s ruling were a travesty of the country’s electoral democracy, as they failed the basic electoral integrity tests.
He said those council polls not only failed to meet acceptable global standards, they were lacking in transparency and credibility, as there were clear cases of interferences from outside forces.
In her welcome address, the Chair of Agora Policy, Ojobo Atuluku, said the landmark judgment of the Supreme Court not only affirmed the constitutional autonomy of local governments, but also established a legal milestone of the principle that local governance must be closer to the people, more transparent, and more accountable.
She said the policy dialogue was organized to afford stakeholders the opportunity to answer the questions about meaningful devolution of authority and resources, in terms of local governments becoming more responsive, more capable, or more participatory since the Supreme Court ruling.
Besides, she said the event was held to establish whether the judgment shifted the balance of power in a way that empowered citizens and strengthened democratic institutions at the grassroots.
“If we are truly committed to restoring the promise of local democracy, then we must pursue a roots-and-branch reform of our local governance system, going beyond legal pronouncements to dismantling entrenched patronage, overhauling compromised electoral structures, and rebuilding local councils as transparent, accountable, and citizen-driven institutions,” she said.
The policy dialogue, which was second in its series, was attended by policymakers from the public and private sectors, civil society organisations, international development organisations, academics and members of the diplomatic community, among others,
