KNOW YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT
By OGASTV NIGERIA
Connecting People to Leadership · Voice of Africa
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION · JUNE 2026
Nigeria’s Supreme Court ordered that your local government receive
its money directly. Almost two years later, most of it never arrived.
Here is what happened — and what you can do about it.
OGASTV EDITORIAL TEAM ◆ JUNE 2026
◆ 8 MIN READ
₦4.5T
774 LGA FUNDS DISBURSED LOCAL GOVERNMENTS LGAS WITH CBN ACCOUNTS
QUICK SUMMARY
On July 11, 2024, Nigeria’s Supreme Court made a historic
ruling: all 774 local governments must receive their money directly no more governors holding it back. Between July
2024 and June 2025, ₦4.5 trillion was disbursed for local governments. Yet as of today, not a single local government
has opened a CBN account to receive these funds directly.
The money is still flowing through state governments. Your community is paying the price with insecurity, bad road & basic infrastructures to improve the living conditions.
THE STORY
A Landmark Ruling — and a Broken Promise
For decades, Nigeria’s local governments — the tier of government closest to ordinary people — have been financially starved. State governors controlled the money flowing from the Federation Account to the 774 local government areas (LGAs) across the country.
Funds meant for roads, markets, schools, clinics, and clean water and communities were routinely diverted, delayed, or simply stolen before reaching communities.
Then came July 11, 2024. Nigeria’s Supreme Court issued one of its
most consequential rulings in years: state governors could no longer legally withhold or divert funds belonging to local governments. The old State–Local Government Joint Account system long used as a tool of political control was declared unconstitutional in practice. Every LGA was to receive its share directly from the Federation Account.
The nation celebrated. Governors scrambled to conduct local
government elections, because the court also ruled that only democratically elected councils not caretaker committees appointed by governors would qualify for the direct funds.
“The state governments are endangering the continuous existence of local government councils and most of them are virtually extinct.”
— SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA, JUDGMENT OF JULY 11, 2024
But the celebrations were short-lived. Implementation was scheduled to begin in October 2024, then pushed to January 2025. When January arrived, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not pay LGA accounts directly. Instead, ₦361.75 billion that month alone was again routed
through state governments.
The CBN stated that local governments
must first present two years of audited accounts before becoming eligible for direct payment a condition that had never been publicly announced before the ruling.
Verified Fact: As of December 2025, not a single one of Nigeria’s 774
local government areas had opened a dedicated account with the Central Bank of Nigeria to receive its Federation Account allocation directly despite a Supreme Court order demanding it.
Between July 2024 and June 2025, a total of ₦4.496 trillion was disbursed to local government councils. This represented about 24.87% of the ₦18.074 trillion shared across all three tiers of government.
The money exists. It is being sent. But it is still passing through the same state-controlled channels the Supreme Court said were unconstitutional.
WHY THIS MATTERS
This Is Not an Abstract Legal Fight — It A!ects Every Nigerian to know the president Bola Tinubu has put structure in place to serve the people at the local level.
Local government is where governance meets daily life. When LGA funds are diverted or mismanaged, the consequences show up in the most visible, painful ways. Here is who bears the cost:
FAMILIES
Primary healthcare centres are
understaffed or abandoned.
Maternity wards lack basic
supplies. Preventable deaths
happen every day at the local
level.
YOUTH
Primary schools — an LGA
responsibility — lack teachers,
furniture, and roofs. Millions of
children are receiving a hollow
education, and teachers go
months without pay.
BUSINESSES
Local markets, roads, and
drainage — all LGA duties — are
neglected. Poor infrastructure
raises the cost of doing business
for small traders and
entrepreneurs.
INVESTORS
No functioning local government
means no reliable land records,
no maintained infrastructure, and
no predictable local environment
for investment.
FARMERS
Rural roads that allow produce to
reach markets are an LGA
responsibility.
COMMUNITIES
Waste disposal, street lighting,
and community sanitation are all
LGA functions. Without money,disappear, farmers lose access, and food gets more expensive
for everyone. communities rot from the inside
while politicians live comfortably.
OGASTV OBSERVATION
What Should Leaders Learn from This?
The Supreme Court did its job. The ruling was clear, historic, and
constitutionally sound. What failed is political will — and institutional accountability. Governors who benefit from controlling local government money have every incentive to
delay, complicate, and frustrate implementation.
The CBN’s last- minute requirement of two years of audited accounts was introduced after the ruling and reads as a convenient obstacle rather than a genuine transparency measure.
The lesson for leaders is simple: a court ruling is only as powerful as its enforcement. Without the Federal Government specifically the Office of the Attorney General and the CBN actively enforcing direct disbursement, governors will continue to find ways around the order.
The 10-man Inter-Ministerial Committee set up to implement the ruling has been conspicuously quiet.
There is also an opportunity here. Local governments that do achieve genuine autonomy will be in a position to become
engines of grassroots development.
The funds exist — ₦4.5 trillion in one year alone. The question is not whether Nigeria has the resources to develop its communities. The question is whether the political system will allow those resources to arrive where they belong.
COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS
Practical Steps That Can Change This:
GOVERNMENT The Federal Government must publicly publish monthly
FAAC disbursement data, showing exactly how much each of the 774 LGAs received and through which channel. Transparency is non-negotiable.
CIVIL SOCIETY Organisations like Tracka, FollowTheMoney, and BudgIT must be empowered and funded to track LGA
budgets in real time at the community level.
Their platforms exist they need scale and public adoption.
CITIZENS Every community should organise a Town Hall with their
LGA Chairman to ask one question: “Where is our money and what is it being spent on?” Council chairpersons are legally obligated to account to citizens.
TECH : Civic technology mobile reporting tools, geospatial project mapping, and e-payment systems can make it nearly
impossible to hide diverted funds when adopted at scale across LGAs.
MEDIA : Local journalists and community platforms like OgasTv must demand monthly FAAC statements from every LGA and publish them in plain language that ordinary Nigerians can read and act on.
POLICY: The National Assembly should pass legislation that introduces criminal penalties not just civil sanctions for governors and officials who divert or withhold LGA allocations.
YOUTH : Young Nigerians aged 18–35 should run for local government
council seats in 2027. The Nigeria Youth Futures Fund (NYFF) is currently offering grants to young people who want to
participate in governance and civic accountability.
CITIZEN ACTION
What You Can Do This Week
1 Find out who your LGA
Chairman is and what projects
have been announced in your
area this year.
2 Visit the FollowTheMoney or
Tracka platforms and search
your local government area to
track projects near you.
3 Collect your PVC if you have
not. Local government
elections are coming in 2027.
Your vote at the grassroots
level matters most.
4 Share this article in your
community WhatsApp groups.
An informed community is
harder to cheat.
5 Attend your next community
development meeting and ask
specifically about LGA budget
spending in your ward.
6 If you are aged 18–35, apply to
the Nigeria Youth Futures Fund
(NYFF) Catalyst Grant for civic
and governance projects.
COMMUNITY QUESTION
If your local government received its full monthly allocation directly with no governor in the way what is the ONE project you would demand it prioritize first in your community?
DROP YOUR ANSWER IN THE COMMENTS · SHARE THIS STORY · TAG YOUR LGA CHAIRMAN
FACT CHECK STATUS @OgasTvAfrica.
What We Verified
VERIFIED: The Supreme Court of Nigeria ruled on July 11, 2024, granting
financial autonomy to all 774 LGAs and declaring governors’ withholding
of funds unconstitutional.
— Source: The Guardian Nigeria, ConstitutionNet, The Punch
VERIFIED: ₦4.496 trillion was disbursed to local government councils
between July 2024 and June 2025 representing 24.87% of total FAAC
disbursements.
— Source: The Punch, FAAC data
VERIFIED: As of December 2025, no LGA had opened a CBN account for
direct receipt of Federation Account allocations. Funds continue to pass
through state governments.
— Source: The Guardian Nigeria
investigation, January 2026
VERIFIED: The CBN imposed a condition requiring LGAs to present two
years of audited accounts before receiving direct allocations — a
condition not stated in the Supreme Court ruling.
— Source: Verivafrica, The Punch.
PARTIALLY VERIFIED: Several state governments have claimed compliance with the Supreme Court ruling. However, independent verification by The Punch and other outlets found these claims to be
misleading in most cases, including in Benue State.
REFERENCES→
The Guardian Nigeria — “Supreme Court Verdict: 19 Months After, Govs Resist
LG Autonomy” (January 2026)
→ The Punch — “Autonomy Standoff: Govs Get ₦4.5tn LG Funds One Year After
S’Court Ruling” (July 2025)
→ Verivafrica — “Nigeria’s Move to Autonomous Local Governance: Progress or
Illusion?”
→ Verivafrica — “Governance Goes Digital: Opening Nigeria’s Local Councils to
Public View”
→ The Conversation — “Nigeria’s Highest Court Says Local Governments Can
Spend Their Funds Without Interference” (February 2025)
→ CDD-West Africa — Democracy Day Statement, June 12, 2026
→ ConstitutionNet — “Nigeria’s Supreme Court Protects Autonomy of Local
Governments” (2024)
→ The Palladium Group — “Nigeria’s Local Governments Get a Lifeline in Supreme
Court Win” (November 2024)
→ URBANET — “Local Governance in Nigeria and the Challenges”
OGASTV NIGERIA · VOICE OF AFRICA
CONNECTING PEOPLE TO LEADERSHIP · TURNING INFORMATION INTO UNDERSTANDING · BUILDING CITIZENS THAT BUILD NATIONS.
THIS ARTICLE IS PART OF THE KNOW YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT SERIES.
© 2026 OGASTV NIGERIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
