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From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki; Jude Chinedu, Enugu; Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri; and Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Two years after the Supreme Court delivered judgment on local government financial autonomy, its implementation across the South East remains contested. Council chairmen in several states insist they now receive their allocations without interference. Opposition figures and civil society groups argue the judgment has not been honoured in full.
The apex court ruled on July 11, 2024, that allocations from the Federation Account should be paid directly to democratically elected local governments. It barred state governments from retaining council funds. It also outlawed the use of caretaker committees to run councils. Two years on, the picture across Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra, Abia and Imo states is far from uniform.
Ebonyi: Chairmen say the money comes directly
In Ebonyi State, the chairman of Ebonyi Local Government Area, Augustine Uburu, said council chairmen have been receiving their monthly allocations directly from the federal government. Uburu, who was chairman of the Association of Local Government Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGON) in the state, said this has been the case since Governor Francis Nwifuru took office in 2023.
“We have always received our allocations here in Ebonyi State,” he said. “So, whether we are receiving directly from the federal government or not, what we do here in Ebonyi State is quite different from what they do in other states of the federation. Here, the council chairmen are fully in charge of their allocations. Our governor doesn’t interfere in our allocations.”
His counterpart in Ezza North, Chief Ogodo Ali Nome, gave a similar account. He told Daily Sun that council chairmen in the state have received their allocations directly from the federal government since the start of the governor’s administration two years ago, and the governor does not distribute the funds himself.
Not everyone in the state agrees. A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Moses Idika, alleged that the Supreme Court judgment is being flagrantly disobeyed in Ebonyi. He pointed to the governor and his aides moving around in convoys of bulletproof vehicles while rural areas remain in deep poverty.
“It is a dangerous precedent that a judgment of the Supreme Court is being flagrantly disobeyed by the same people that swore an oath to protect and obey the Constitution,” Idika said. “This is simply a government of outlaws and gangsters, and Nigerians must stand up to take back their country. If we don’t retrieve the country from these people, one day we may wake up to realise that even the human beings in the country have been sold to some individuals as slaves.”
He argued that there was no genuine local government autonomy anywhere in the state, pointing to what he described as the sudden wealth of people close to the governor. “Go round Abakaliki town. Everyone around the governor is now suddenly a billionaire, building houses, petrol stations, plazas, hotels and all manner of businesses, whereas the state, especially the hinterlands, keeps shrinking into excruciating poverty,” he said.
The Ebonyi State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Uchenna Igwe, declined to comment when contacted by our correspondent.
Enugu: A dispute over what compliance actually means
In Enugu State, the chairman of Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area and Deputy Chairman of ALGON, Ugo Ferdinand Ukwueze, and his Igbo-Etiti counterpart, Dr. Eric Odo, insist that Governor Peter Mbah has complied with the judgment by giving councils unhindered access to their allocations. The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the state disagrees. It argues that the continued operation of the Joint Allocation Account Committee (JAAC) falls short of the spirit of the Supreme Court verdict.
Ukwueze dismissed suggestions that the state government interferes with federal allocations meant for the 17 local government councils. “Frankly speaking, the state government does not have a hand in the federal allocations to the local governments,” he said. “I’m not just speaking as a lawyer, but as chairman and deputy chairman of ALGON in Enugu State.”
He described the Mbah administration as building a strong partnership with local governments rather than controlling their funds, describing the governor as offering “a hand of leadership and a hand of fatherhood in governance.”
Ukwueze pointed to Igbo-Eze South as an example. He said the council’s 16 electoral wards now have 16 newly built Type Two Primary Health Centres and 16 Smart Green Schools under the state’s development programme, with 10 of the schools already roofed and three expected to open in September.
“Ordinarily, there is no way a local government, no matter how buoyant, would have been able to attract this kind of development,” he said. “What we do in Enugu State is a synergy with the state government. The government is building these structures. We are complementing it in other ways.”
Dr. Eric Odo made a similar case for Igbo-Etiti, saying the council has used its allocations for healthcare, information and communication technology, roads, water supply and social welfare. “These things would have been impossible if you don’t have a character like Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, who on his own has refused the temptation of delving into the finances of the local government areas,” Odo said. “We can tell you for sure that what you see as being shared in the federal allocation at Abuja is what gets to us as local government areas, and that has enabled us to deploy the resources effectively.”
The Secretary of the NDC in the state, Dr Sabastine Okafor, rejects this account. He argues that the Supreme Court judgment rested on three principles: direct allocation to local governments, an end to state retention of council funds, and the abolition of caretaker committees. He accepts that states have largely complied on the third point, holding local government elections rather than installing caretaker committees. He insists the financial autonomy envisaged by the court remains unrealised.
Okafor alleged that allocations in Enugu still pass through the JAAC, where spending decisions are made before funds are shared. “In Enugu State, ALGON has consistently mentioned that the state governor does not touch their allocation, but the said allocations still enter JAAC,” he said. “What does that mean? It means that directives on expenditures have to be made before the monies are shared.”
He further claimed that local governments still contribute to state-backed programmes, including the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Rangers International Football Club, and the construction of Smart Green Schools and healthcare facilities.
“It is therefore a mockery of one’s intelligence to say that LG funds in Enugu State are not touched,” he said. “On paper, it may be true. But in reality it isn’t, because the people that gave local government chairmen power would always tell them what to do with it.” Okafor also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct local government elections nationwide, arguing this would strengthen autonomy and deepen grassroots democracy.
Anambra: A state law built to route around the ruling
Anambra took a markedly different path from its neighbours. Rather than relying informally on the JAAC, Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration passed the Anambra State Local Government Law 2024, which requires that allocations received by local governments from the federal government be deposited first into the state’s joint local government account, before any disbursement to councils takes place.
Opposition figures view the law as a direct attempt to route around the Supreme Court’s ruling. The Labour Party’s state chairman, Chief Damian Ugoh, said the bill sought to “arm-twist the chairmen to send back the local government allocation received directly from the Federal Government to the state’s coffers.” He said the party stood by the Supreme Court’s decision on local government autonomy and the management of council funds.
Soludo has defended the law firmly. He has dismissed as baseless any suggestion that governors coerce local government chairmen into sending money to the state, arguing that Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution gives state governments the authority to legislate for the management of local government areas. He has said that granting complete, unsupervised autonomy to Nigeria’s 774 local government areas would result in “humongous chaos” and hinder sustainable development, rather than accelerate it.
Central to the law is a new Anambra State Economic Planning Board, on which every local government chairperson sits. The board decides how local government revenue is allocated toward salaries, education, healthcare and pensions. Soludo has argued this ensures poorer councils are not left unable to meet basic obligations, such as paying teachers, if left to manage their allocations entirely alone.
The dispute has not been confined to the executive and the opposition. Hon Henry Nigeria Mbachu, a member of the state House of Assembly representing Awka South, broke from the majority position within the chamber to argue that the law is retrogressive and would restrict local governments from managing their own federal allocations. He said the arrangement could compromise the governor’s integrity and called on President Tinubu to monitor governors who compel elected chairmen to divert funds back to the state.
Legal commentators have raised similar concerns. One analysis of the law argued that its requirement to deposit allocations into a consolidated state account before disbursement amounts to an attempt to sidestep the Supreme Court’s ruling, and would not withstand rigorous legal scrutiny if tested in court.
Two years on, no such legal challenge has succeeded in unwinding the law, and the state’s twenty-one councils continue to operate under it. With local government elections scheduled for August 2026, the practical question of who ultimately controls disbursement in Anambra remains open, in contrast to Ebonyi and Enugu, where chairmen loyal to the state government maintain that funds already flow to them without interference.
Abia: Allocations still routed through the state
In Abia State, there are indications that the government has yet to implement the Supreme Court ruling in full. An official in Bende Local Government Area, who asked not to be named, explained that under the law, when councils receive allocations from the Federation Account, the state is meant to add ten per cent of its internally generated revenue before sharing the combined sum with councils.
The official said this is not happening. “The idea of establishing the state and local government joint account system was for states to bring out ten per cent of her IGR, lump it together with the councils’ funds and share them among the LGAs,” he said. “Presently, this is not so. The state hardly contributes to the fund as required by law, but superintends over its sharing, and in most cases the LGAs are the losers.”
The Chairman of ALGON in the state, Hon Chinedu Ekeke, could not be reached for comment on whether local governments receive their allocations directly from the federal government. A council chairman in Abia South, speaking anonymously for fear of sanction, confirmed that funds do not come directly but pass through the JAAC. He nonetheless said the arrangement has brought enough funding for meaningful projects, unlike in the past when councils could barely cover staff salaries.
“Yes, we may not be getting our allocations directly from the federal government, but we are partnering with the state government to execute monumental projects for the benefit of the rural populace,” he said. He cited the grading and refilling of forty eight roads during the dry season, the installation of streetlights in some areas, and skills training for young people. Asked whether he could account for the funds disbursed to his council by the federal government, he said he could only account for what he had received.
The state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Uzor Nwachukwu, did not respond to calls or text messages seeking the government’s position. A senior official in the ministry, however, confirmed that the JAAC system remains in operation. He said the federal government is still working out how to handle the judgment on financial autonomy nationwide, and that councils would receive allocations directly once that process is complete. He rejected suggestions that the state government was hijacking council funds.
A member of the House of Representatives from Abia, Hon Amobi Ogah, has condemned the way states control local government funds. “There is no LGA in Nigeria today that does not get at least N250 million every month as allocation from the federal government,” he said at a public event. “That’s why the governors are holding tight to LGA allocations.” He described the situation as unacceptable and said the National Assembly and the president are working to correct it.
“The National Assembly and Mr President are working hard to free the LGAs from the claws of the governors by granting them financial autonomy in the real sense of it, so we can witness development in our communities,” he said.
The main opposition party in the state, the All Progressives Congress (APC), has thrown its weight behind the Civil Society Observatory for Constitutional and Legal Compliance (CSOCLC), which is pursuing legal action to compel the state government to disclose the accounts and expenditure of its 17 local government councils. In a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Chief Uche Aguoru, the party urged the government to “open its books, demonstrate genuine transparency for once, obey court rulings, and let Abians see where the more than 800 billion naira that has been paid into the local government accounts has gone.”
The party described the Supreme Court judgment, alongside efforts by President Bola Tinubu, as intended to restore governance to the grassroots, and accused the state government of mismanaging funds meant for local communities.
Imo: Autonomy exists only on paper
In Imo State, a former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Chief Ike Ibe, said financial autonomy for local governments exists only on paper, with state governors continuing to control council funds. “I do not think there is anything about financial autonomy working in any local government in Nigeria,” he said. “State governors, with their houses of assembly, devise all kinds of schemes to muzzle the local government funds for their own use.”
Ibe said most councils barely receive enough to pay staff salaries, let alone fund capital projects. “This is the reason why practically every local government is undeveloped, even though on paper they get hundreds of millions of naira in allocation monthly,” he said. He further alleged that council chairmen have been reduced to seeking approval from state government houses for routine expenses. “Council chairmen crawl cap in hand to governors for even the most basic funding in their councils,” he said. “There is absolutely no semblance of autonomy of local government councils, whether financial or administrative.”
His comments come amid wider concern that, despite direct disbursement from the Federation Account, state interference through joint accounts and similar mechanisms continues to limit what reaches the grassroots. There was no immediate response from the Imo State Government or ALGON at the time of writing. The Chairman of the Imo State Association of Local Government Employees of Nigeria, Ikenna Adikibe, could not be reached.
A national grievance from former chairmen
Former elected council chairmen, under the aegis of the National Association of Former Elected Local Government Chairmen of Nigeria, have also voiced concern, attributing the state of local governments to non-adherence to the Supreme Court ruling. The association’s National President, Shaba Ibrahim, spoke in Abakaliki during the inauguration of the association’s Ebonyi State leadership.
Ibrahim said local governments remain far from autonomous despite the ruling, describing this as unacceptable. “Local government councils have been rendered prostrate,” he said. “They exist only at the mercy of governors, contrary to the letter and intent of the constitution. That is why NALGON has been pushing for autonomy at the local government level, which the apex court has pronounced upon but which is being disobeyed, again at the mercy of governors.”
He argued that local government is essential to any state’s success. “The cart must perch and the eagle must also perch,” he said. “He who says no to the order, let his wing break. We are going to ensure that we break that wing if we come together.”
A judgment still being tested
Two years after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the accounts from Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra, Abia and Imo suggest a judgment that has changed practice in some respects, ending the use of caretaker committees and prompting elections in most states, while leaving the deeper question of financial control largely unresolved.
Council chairmen in Ebonyi and Enugu insist the money reaches them without state interference. Anambra stands apart, with a state law that formalises the very consolidated account structure the Supreme Court sought to dismantle, defended by the governor as necessary coordination rather than control.
Opposition figures, civil society groups and at least one federal lawmaker argue that mechanisms such as the JAAC, and Anambra’s own consolidated account, continue to give state governments influence over funds the Supreme Court intended to place beyond their reach.
Whether that gap closes will depend, by the account of officials in Abia, on how the federal government eventually settles the question of direct disbursement nationwide, and on whether states currently defending their compliance, including Anambra ahead of its August 2026 local government elections, are willing to open their books to the kind of scrutiny that groups such as the CSOCLC are now pursuing through the courts.
