Exactly one year after the Supreme Court granted full autonomy to the 774 local government areas, the Federal Government has continued to channel allocations through state governments.
An analysis by correspondents shows that state governors retained control of council allocations totalling N4.5tn, defying the landmark judgment that mandated direct funding to local governments.
On July 11, 2024, the apex court ruled that local governments must receive their allocations directly from the Federation Account, describing the long-standing practice of routing the funds through state governments as unconstitutional.
In response, the Federal Government constituted an inter-agency panel to oversee the implementation of the ruling and directed the Central Bank of Nigeria to open individual accounts for each of the 774 local government councils across the country to facilitate direct disbursements.
However, one year after the judgment, findings show that the process remains largely unimplemented.
Local government allocations have continued to pass through state governments amid delays and disputes between the Central Bank, state governments, local government authorities, and other relevant agencies.
An analysis of data from the Federation Account Allocation Committee reveals that between July 2024 and June 2025, the sum of N4.496tn was disbursed to local government councils.
This represents 24.87 per cent of the N18.074tn shared among the three tiers of government over the 12-month period.
According to the monthly communiqués released by FAAC, N337.02bn was allocated to LGs in July 2024, N343.70bn in August, N306.53bn in September, N329.86bn in October, and N355.62bn in November.
In December, local governments received N402.55bn, followed by N361.75bn in January 2025, N434.57bn in February, and N410.56bn in March.
Subsequent allocations included N387bn in April, N406.63bn in May, and N419.97bn in June.
Although the percentage of the total allocation going to local governments has remained steady, ranging between 24 and 25 per cent each month, the method of disbursement continues to breach the Supreme Court’s judgment.
An official at the Office of The Attorney General of the Federation, said that the AGF had done his bit, stating that the FG set up a committee to work on ensuring that the LGs were granted full autonomy.
Our source said, “The Attorney General is not the one in charge of disbursing funds. The implementation committee raised by the Federal Government is chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. AGF is just a member there and he is not even the secretary. The Minister of Finance is there.
“The AGF has already gone to court and won the case and the moratorium, which was given to the governors before, was for them to conduct their local government elections, which I think all of them have complied with.
“The committee that was raised, ALGON is part of it, Labour is part of it. Those are the people to direct some of these questions to.”
