Manny Ita –
The Federal Government has escalated its campaign to enforce financial autonomy for Nigeria’s 774 local government areas, vowing to deploy “tough executive action” against state governors who continue to interfere with grassroots finances. Nearly twenty months after the landmark Supreme Court ruling of July 2024, President Bola Tinubu has expressed growing frustration with the continued circumvention of the judgment through State-Local Government Joint Accounts. During a recent high-level briefing, the President issued a direct ultimatum to state executives, warning that he is prepared to sign a decisive Executive Order to bypass state structures entirely. Signaling his readiness to use the full weight of federal authority, Tinubu remarked, “If you wait for my Executive Order, because I have the knife and I have the yam, I will cut it.”
In alignment with this directive, the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) has implemented a new regime requiring all local governments to maintain standalone accounts directly with the Central Bank of Nigeria. The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has further been instructed to verify the “elected status” of council chairmen before any funds are released, effectively cutting off local governments currently managed by appointed Caretaker Committees. This move follows the Supreme Court’s declaration that such committees are illegal and ineligible for federal funding. To ensure compliance, the Federal Government has warned that any local government still utilizing joint accounts with state governments will face an immediate freeze on their allocations.
Legal pressure is also mounting as the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, has officially classified the diversion of local government funds as “gross misconduct,” which constitutes constitutional grounds for the impeachment of a governor. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the ICPC have been placed on high alert to monitor “voucher racketeering,” a practice where state governments reportedly compel local chairmen to sign for funds they do not control. The Attorney-General cautioned local officials that while governors enjoy immunity, the chairmen themselves do not, stating that those who sign away their council’s autonomy face prosecution for conspiracy and misappropriation of public funds.
Despite these federal maneuvers, resistance persists in several states where Houses of Assembly have passed new legislation to maintain state “supervision” over local administration. Critics argue that these laws create a loophole in Section 7 of the Constitution, leaving many local government chairmen as “glorified civil servants” who must still seek Government House approval for expenditures. The Federal Government’s current stance seeks to break this deadlock by shifting the battle from the courtroom to the treasury, ensuring that the “knife and the yam” are used to carve out a permanent financial separation between the two tiers of government.
