What every citizen must know, By MA Iliasu

The success of LG reform will not be determined in courtrooms or boardrooms — it will be won or lost in communities. Citizens must evolve from passive victims of misgovernance to active auditors of their local institutions. Demand that your local council publishes its budget. Attend the next town hall meeting and ask how project funds are spent. Use mobile phones to photograph ghost projects and share them on social media. Tag watchdogs like @CeFTPI and @ICPC_PE. Name and shame, but more importantly — document and demand.

In theory, local governments (LGs) in Nigeria should be the most impactful tier of governance — the closest to the people and most responsive to their needs. Constitutionally empowered to deliver services like basic education, primary healthcare, waste management, and local roads, LGs are meant to serve as the nucleus of national development. Yet, in practice, they have become synonymous with inefficiency, secrecy, and corruption. Despite the billions allocated to them annually, millions of Nigerians remain trapped in underdevelopment.

Holistically, understanding the dysfunction of Nigeria’s local government system requires revisiting its historical evolution, investigating the entrenched corruption that persists there, and evaluating how transparency — applied with intent and urgency — can transform grassroots governance.

Nigeria’s local governance system has been shaped by a mix of indigenous traditions and imposed colonial structures. Pre-colonial societies were governed through decentralised traditional institutions — emirates, chiefdoms, village assemblies — that facilitated participatory decision-making and local administration. However, the arrival of British colonial rule replaced these systems with indirect rule, whereby native authorities became tools of tax collection and control, largely stripped of accountability.

Post-independence, local administration remained fragmented under regional governments, until the watershed 1976 Local Government Reform by the military regime of Murtala Mohammed. This reform granted LGs a unified structure, administrative autonomy, and direct federal allocation. It was a visionary move aimed at democratising development. However, the post-1999 democratic dispensation witnessed a gradual erosion of that autonomy, as state governments began to dominate LG operations through joint accounts and political appointments, reducing them to mere appendages of the states.

The intention behind establishing LGs was noble: to democratise governance, improve service delivery, promote inclusivity, and ensure that development responds to local needs. But these ideals have largely been sabotaged by systemic corruption, political interference, and the absence of transparency.

The Bleak Present: Looted Budgets, Abandoned Projects, and Ghost Bureaucracies

The financial hemorrhage within Nigeria’s LG system is staggering. According to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), more than ₦500 billion in LG funds were diverted through joint state-local government accounts over the past decade. This structural flaw has allowed state governors to unilaterally withhold, redirect, or manipulate funds meant for local development — effectively decapitating LG autonomy.

In July 2024, Nigeria’s Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment affirming the financial autonomy of local governments. The ruling mandates that LG allocations from the federation account be disbursed directly, without routing these through state-controlled joint accounts. While this is a constitutional victory, autonomy without accountability can be equally dangerous…This is where the Accountability and Corruption Prevention Programme for Local Governments (ACPPLG)…enters the picture.

The consequences are visible everywhere: ghost schools, broken boreholes, and clinics without medicine. A 2023 report by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) found that over 60 per cent of LG corruption cases involved project fund misappropriation, with rural health and road construction projects being the most affected. Even more damning was the revelation that 40 per cent of LG payrolls were padded with ghost workers, costing the nation an estimated ₦120 billion annually. In one case in Kano, an audit uncovered over 3,000 fictitious names drawing salaries.

Transparency International’s investigation into procurement practices revealed that a majority of LG contracts are either inflated or awarded without due process. In Enugu, a ₦500 million primary healthcare centre project was awarded and fully paid for but remains a fenced plot of land — its signboard faded, its promise unfulfilled. This pattern repeats itself across the country, from Bayelsa to Sokoto.

Underlying these scandals is a critical flaw: the near-complete absence of public oversight. Less than 1 per cent of Nigeria’s 774 local governments have functional websites. This means that citizens have no way of knowing how much is allocated, what is being spent, and who is being paid. Governance without transparency inevitably breeds impunity.

A Judicial and Institutional Turning Point

In July 2024, Nigeria’s Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment affirming the financial autonomy of local governments. The ruling mandates that LG allocations from the federation account be disbursed directly, without routing these through state-controlled joint accounts. While this is a constitutional victory, autonomy without accountability can be equally dangerous.

This is where the Accountability and Corruption Prevention Programme for Local Governments (ACPPLG) — a joint initiative of the ICPC, the Nigerian Bar Association, and the Center for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity (CeFTPI) — enters the picture. The ACPPLG offers a comprehensive roadmap to reform local governance through five strategic pillars: fiscal transparency, open procurement, merit-based staffing, corruption control, and citizen engagement.

Each of these pillars is rooted in actionable goals. LGs are expected to publish budgets and audited financials online, adopt digital procurement systems, eliminate ghost workers, establish internal anti-corruption units, and create platforms for community feedback. For the first time, there is a structured blueprint to transform local governance from a black box into a transparent, participatory institution.

CeFTPI’s role in this reform is particularly significant. By leveraging data analytics, civic technology, and citizen journalism, it has been instrumental in exposing dormant LG websites, tracking abandoned projects, and providing performance dashboards. The organisation’s new initiative — to satirically expose absurd government spending through visual storytelling — is a powerful tool for civic enlightenment.

CeFTPI’s role in this reform is particularly significant. By leveraging data analytics, civic technology, and citizen journalism, it has been instrumental in exposing dormant LG websites, tracking abandoned projects, and providing performance dashboards. The organisation’s new initiative — to satirically expose absurd government spending through visual storytelling — is a powerful tool for civic enlightenment.

Citizens as the Final Watchdogs

The success of LG reform will not be determined in courtrooms or boardrooms — it will be won or lost in communities. Citizens must evolve from passive victims of misgovernance to active auditors of their local institutions. Demand that your local council publishes its budget. Attend the next town hall meeting and ask how project funds are spent. Use mobile phones to photograph ghost projects and share them on social media. Tag watchdogs like @CeFTPI and @ICPC_PE. Name and shame, but more importantly — document and demand.

Digital tools like the monitoring platform (https://fiscaltransparency.org/acpplg/) allow for anonymous reporting of corruption. Community-based organisations can organise budget literacy workshops to empower people with the knowledge to follow the money. The tools exist — the will must now follow.

A Republic Begins at the Grassroots

Nigeria’s democratic journey will remain incomplete if the most critical tier of government remains shrouded in secrecy. Local governments are not charity branches of state governors — they are constitutional entities with defined responsibilities and funding. The era of operating in darkness must end.

The ACPPLG initiative and the Supreme Court’s verdict offer a rare window of reform. But laws alone do not build roads or stock health centres — people do. Citizens must reclaim their stake in local governance by demanding transparency, enforcing accountability, and insisting on results.

Corruption is loud, but accountability must be louder. The republic begins — not in Abuja — but in your ward, your school, your clinic. The question is: will you watch in silence, or will you act?

Muhammad Ahmad Iliyasu is Strategic Communications Officer at the Center for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity (CeFTPI). He can be reached via his email: muhada102@gmail.com.