By Seye Oladejo, Lagos APC Chieftain
Nigeria is witnessing a significant development in its governance landscape as local governments gain greater financial autonomy at a time when allocations from the Federation Account have increased substantially.
This convergence presents both a historic opportunity and a critical test. For decades, local governments have complained that their responsibilities at the grassroots were not matched by adequate financial resources or sufficient control over their allocations. The constitutional and judicial push for local government financial autonomy has therefore raised hopes that the third tier of government can finally become a more effective instrument of grassroots development.
But one fundamental question remains: Where is the corresponding impact at the grassroots?
More money must translate into more development. Autonomy must translate into accountability. Increased allocations must ultimately translate into improved living conditions for ordinary Nigerians.
The local government remains the closest tier of government to the people. It is where residents encounter the potholes on neighbourhood roads, overflowing drains, inadequate sanitation, poorly equipped primary healthcare centres and other challenges that directly affect everyday life.
With greater financial control now available to local governments, citizens are justified in expecting measurable improvements.
AUTONOMY MUST DELIVER RESULTS
This is not a call for indiscriminate spending. It is a demand for value.
Citizens should be asking:
How many kilometres of local roads have been rehabilitated?
How many primary healthcare centres have been upgraded?
How many schools have received meaningful interventions?
How much has been invested in drainage, sanitation, street lighting and environmental management?
How many communities have benefited from potable water projects?
How many young people have been equipped with sustainable skills and economic opportunities?
These questions should form the heart of the conversation around local government autonomy.
The Supreme Court’s intervention on local government financial autonomy was a landmark moment in Nigeria’s democratic development. However, autonomy by itself is not development; it is an instrument for achieving development.
The real test is how effectively local governments use that instrument.
COMPETENT LEADERSHIP IS ESSENTIAL
There is another critical dimension that must not be overlooked: the capacity and quality of those entrusted with managing local governments.
Financial autonomy will have limited impact if the human capacity required to manage the resources and responsibilities that accompany it is inadequate.
The autonomy agenda should therefore include deliberate efforts to improve the calibre, competence and professional capacity of those who govern at the grassroots. Local government chairmen, councillors and administrators should have the requisite knowledge to understand budgeting, public finance, procurement, project management, community development and modern governance.
Beyond formal qualifications, continuous training and capacity development should become part of the system.
The responsibilities of a contemporary local government leader go beyond attending meetings and approving expenditure. Today’s grassroots leaders must understand technology, data-driven planning, environmental management, public-private partnerships, human capital development and the increasingly complex demands of local administration.
A bigger purse requires better-informed and better-equipped leadership.
We cannot give institutions more resources and responsibilities without simultaneously strengthening the capacity of the people managing them.
AUTONOMY MUST NOT MEAN FREEDOM FROM SCRUTINY
Greater financial independence should come with greater transparency and accountability.
The local government chairman who controls more resources must also answer more questions.
Councillors should play a stronger role in scrutinising budgets and expenditure. Local government audit systems must be strengthened, while procurement processes should be transparent and open to appropriate public scrutiny.
Citizens should know what projects are being executed in their communities, how much they cost, who is responsible for them and when they are expected to be completed.
Technology can significantly improve this process.
A publicly accessible local government project dashboard, for instance, could provide details of approved projects, locations, contractors, costs, timelines and implementation status. Such a system would make it more difficult for abandoned or fictitious projects to disappear behind bureaucratic paperwork.
Accountability is not an obstacle to autonomy. It is its natural companion.
REVENUE INCREASE MUST BE FELT BY THE PEOPLE
The recent improvement in Federation Account revenue also deserves careful attention.
Increased revenue provides governments with greater resources to address infrastructure deficits, improve public services and invest in human capital. However, higher revenue should not automatically translate into higher recurrent expenditure, political patronage or administrative overheads.
The people must see the difference.
Nigeria has endured the paradox of governments announcing increased revenues while citizens continue to face deteriorating infrastructure and rising living costs.
At the local level, the contradiction becomes even more glaring when substantial allocations coexist with poor roads, inadequate sanitation, dysfunctional healthcare facilities and weak social services.
This is why the present moment requires a new social contract between local governments and their citizens.
Local government autonomy should not merely relocate financial control from one political centre to another. It should bring government closer to the people in a practical, measurable and meaningful way.
The ordinary citizen should be able to say: “Yes, I can see where my local government’s money is going.”
REWARD PERFORMANCE, NOT JUST ALLOCATIONS
There is also a strong case for performance-based evaluation of local governments.
Why should local governments be judged merely by how much money they receive? Why not also judge them by what they deliver?
A local government that efficiently converts available resources into roads, healthcare, sanitation, education, employment opportunities and other measurable public goods should be recognised and encouraged.
Conversely, local governments that consistently fail to deliver should face appropriate scrutiny.
State governments also have an important role to play. Autonomy should not become isolation. The three tiers of government must continue to collaborate on projects requiring coordinated planning and implementation.
The objective should not be a turf war over who controls what.
The objective should be development.
For the Federal Government, improved revenue should create room for greater investment in national infrastructure, security, economic productivity and human capital.
For state governments, increased resources should strengthen their capacity to deliver quality services.
For local governments, autonomy should finally provide the opportunity to become genuine engines of grassroots development.
THE PEOPLE WANT RESULTS
Ultimately, Nigerians are not interested in accounting terminology. They are interested in results.
They want to know whether the road to their homes is motorable, whether their children can access quality basic education, whether the nearby primary healthcare centre has qualified personnel and essential medicines, whether their communities are clean and properly drained, whether local authorities can respond effectively to emergencies, and whether young people can access meaningful opportunities.
That is the real meaning of grassroots governance.
As local government autonomy becomes more established and Federation Account allocations continue to improve, the standard of expectation must rise accordingly.
More allocation should mean more development.
More autonomy should mean more accountability.
More resources should mean more results.
Greater responsibility should mean better-qualified and continuously trained leaders.
This is not an unreasonable demand. It is the minimum expectation of citizens in a functioning democracy.
Nigeria’s local governments now have an opportunity to prove that autonomy can move beyond constitutional debate and become a practical instrument of transformation.
The time has come for the people at the grassroots to feel the difference.
Autonomy without impact is merely administrative independence. Autonomy with accountability, competent leadership and measurable development is true grassroots democracy.
