Human rights lawyer Femi Falana has urged Nigerians to look beyond the federal government and demand greater accountability from state and local governments over the management of public funds and delivery of essential services.
Mr Falana made the call on Thursday in Lagos as the keynote speaker at the public screening of LG Billions in the Dark, an investigative documentary on local governance in Osun State produced by DevReporting.
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The documentary examines the prolonged crisis over local government leadership in Osun and its implications for public finance and service delivery. It highlights the gap between billions of naira allocated to the state’s 30 local government areas and the poor state of roads, water, sanitation, healthcare and education in many communities.
Mr Falana said the situation is not peculiar to Osun State, arguing that the crisis of local governance is linked to the weakening of local councils and inadequate accountability at the grassroots.
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He said many Nigerians had lost confidence in local governments because elections conducted by State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) were often manipulated to favour ruling parties.
“The local government or the State Independent Electoral Commissions in Nigeria conduct the worst elections in Africa, where the members of the ruling party, or rather the ruling party must produce all the chairs and the councillors,” he said.
LG’s finances
Mr Falana also criticised state authorities’ continued control of local government finances, despite the Supreme Court’s July 2024 judgment.
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On 11 July 2024, the Supreme Court affirmed the financial autonomy of Nigeria’s 774 local governments, ruling that allocations meant for the councils should be paid directly to them from the federation account.
Mr Falana said the judgment is yet to fully translate into practice in many states.
“In those days, it was an offence to disobey the judgment of the Supreme Court. In fact, even under the military regime, it was unthinkable,” he said.
“Today, judgments of courts are disobeyed by state governments, federal and even local governments.”
He said citizens should also take responsibility for demanding accountability from public officials rather than leaving governance issues entirely to politicians.
“We have enormous resources in this country, yet our communities remain underdeveloped,” he said. “We cannot continue to focus exclusively on Abuja while ignoring what happens in our states and local government areas. Every citizen has a responsibility to demand accountability.”
Local governments closest to citizens
In her opening remarks, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Folasade Ogunsola, said effective local governments are essential to national development because they are closest to citizens.
Mrs Ogunsola said local councils should play a central role in urban planning and management, particularly as Nigerian cities expand faster than the infrastructure and institutions supporting them.
“They understand their communities, the location of vulnerable populations, the demands of local infrastructure, and the pressures facing neighbourhoods,” she said.
She urged local governments to move beyond basic administration and support local businesses, markets and informal enterprises while improving public spaces and essential services.
Mrs Ogunsola, a professor of Medical Microbiology, said the recent move towards direct funding for local governments is a step in the right direction, although challenges remaint.
Mr Falana also emphasised that citizens should make good use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) to obtain information from the government.
He said citizens could ask local governments how much they had received and how the funds were being used.
Accountability at the grassroots
The publisher of PREMIUM TIMES and Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Journalism and Innovation Development, Dapo Olorunyomi, who chaired the event, described the documentary as an example of accountability journalism.
“Holding public institutions and officers accountable for their responsibilities to citizens is what can make them stay on their toes, and that is what DevReporting did with its documentary,” he said. “And that is accountability journalism.”
The event also featured the unveiling of the Development Reporting Africa Foundation (DRAF), the non-profit arm of DevReporting, and a panel discussion on local governance and accountability.
The panel featured Comfort Idika-Ogunye of Jiti Ogunye Chambers; Moyosore Adebanjo, Executive Chairman of Onigbongbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Lagos State; Wale Adedayo, former Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government Area, Ogun State; Vera Amaechi, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at UNILAG; and Joshua Osiyemi, Head of Tracka at BudgIT.
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The panellists called for transparency in local government finances, including publishing budgets and expenditure online in accessible formats. They also urged councils to improve public engagement and sensitise residents about the functions of local governments and how public resources are used.
They further recommended stronger citizen participation, particularly by women, young people and persons with disabilities, and encouraged civil society organisations to take accountability efforts beyond state capitals into local communities.
The panel also stressed the importance of using digital tools to monitor government projects, report failures and track the implementation of public programmes.
The convener and Team Lead of DevReporting, Mojeed Alabi, said the documentary and the launch of the foundation are driven by a shared commitment to improve society through development reporting and accountability.
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