Some Nigerian state governors are now stopping local government (LG) chairmen from opening bank accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), even though the Supreme Court gave full financial independence to all 774 LGs in the country.
Beyond Boders recalls that nine months ago, the Supreme Court ruled that LGs should get their money directly from the Federation Account without going through state governments. The Federal Government supported the ruling and set up a committee to make sure it was followed. This committee told the CBN to help each LG open a bank account for direct payments.
However, this plan is facing many problems. Some governors are pressuring LG chairmen not to open these accounts. They are doing this because they do not want to lose control over LG funds.
One LG chairman from the South-East said, “Our governor has threatened us (all the chairmen in the state) not to open accounts with the CBN for the direct payment of our allocation.
“We even tried to beg him, seeking to strike a deal, such that if he allows us to open the account with the CBN and our allocations are paid directly, we will remit 50 per cent of the LG allocation to him monthly, but he disagreed. So, this is where we are for now.”
Other LG chairmen across Nigeria, who spoke anonymously, also confirmed that they were being stopped from opening the CBN accounts. They said some governors prefer LGs to use commercial banks, where they can still control the money.
In some cases, the CBN has also made things difficult. For example, it asked LGs to submit two months of bank statements before accounts could be opened. Many LGs could not meet this condition because their governors are still managing their funds.
A chairman in the South-West said, “All council areas here in our state can’t meet up. The situation is not peculiar to our state. If you check well, most states can’t meet up simply because their governors are the ones spending their allocation.
“They are only giving those in LGAs whatever they feel like giving them.”
Meanwhile, in Nasarawa State, the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) confirmed that LGs have opened CBN accounts. However, they have not yet received money directly from the Federal Government.
The NULGE chairman, Adamu Sharhabilu, said, “As I speak with you, all the LG accounts had been opened because we thought that the Federal Government will send our money there, but up till this moment, no LG in Nasarawa State has received allocation directly from the FG.”
In other states like Kwara, Yobe, Zamfara, and Kano, most LGs have not yet opened CBN accounts. A council chairman in Kano said it was heard that the CBN opened accounts for LGs, but the bank had not called them for account regularisation or to verify signatories.
In Jigawa State, the ALGON chairman, Prof. Abdulrahman Salim, said the process is ongoing and blamed the delay on CBN’s failure to fix a date for biometric data capture, stating that they were only waiting for the biometric capturing date, as everything else has been done.
But a NULGE official in Jigawa, speaking anonymously, said it would not be surprising if some governors are quietly working against LG autonomy.
Many LG workers are now calling on the Federal Government to respect the Supreme Court ruling and send money directly to local governments. They say it is the only way to stop governors from misusing LG funds and ensure local communities benefit from their own allocations.
