For more than four decades, Nigeria’s local government system has been paraded as the “closest tier of government to the people.” Yet, the bitter truth is that local governments have done nothing close to bringing governance to the hinterlands.
They have become the weakest link in Nigeria’s federal arrangement — a colossal failure, a sinkhole of public funds, and a convenient tool for state governors to entrench political patronage.
The system is rotten beyond repair. Despite the Supreme Court’s recent ruling granting financial autonomy to local governments, declaring that allocations should come directly from the Federation Account, nothing has changed.
Governors still hijack the funds, manipulate joint accounts, and suffocate local government councils. The very essence of autonomy is strangled at birth. The governors have become emperors, treating LGAs as cash cows for personal and political survival.
Before the judgment, and even after several so-called “reforms,” the story of local governments in Nigeria has remained the same: failure, stagnation, and decay.
These councils were created to deliver development to rural Nigeria — to bring basic education, healthcare, roads, and grassroots governance. Instead, what we see are empty shells called councils, with in some cases, little or no functioning offices, no staff morale, and no trace of meaningful development.
Let us tell ourselves the truth: Nigeria is the only country in the world that pretends to run a third tier of government. Other federations — the U.S., Germany, India — function perfectly with two tiers. What we have is a fraudulent contraption where governors install their cronies as chairmen, and call them “elected officials.”
These chairmen do not represent the people. They are imposed, handpicked, and loyal only to their political masters in the state capitals, not to the rural dwellers they claim to serve.
The tragedy of Nigeria’s LG system is that it has become a marketplace for corruption. Humongous allocations — running into trillions over the years — vanish without impact.
Travel to most local government areas and what you see are decrepit secretariats, unpaid workers, abandoned health centres, collapsed primary schools, impassable rural roads, and youths fleeing the rural areas for survival in the cities. What, then, is the justification for keeping this failed structure alive?
The much-touted reforms of the past — from the 1976 Local Government Reform to more recent constitutional tinkering — have only deepened the rot.
Nothing has worked. Nothing will work. The system is inherently flawed and cannot deliver on its mandate because governors will never let go of their stranglehold. Even the Supreme Court judgment, hailed as a victory for grassroots governance, has turned out to be another paper tiger.
INNONEWS insists that Nigeria must face the truth: the local government system has failed. It should be scrapped. Continuing with this farce is to waste scarce national resources on a tier that serves no useful purpose. Why maintain a structure that exists only on paper, while rural Nigerians wallow in underdevelopment? Why feed a bureaucracy that has no accountability, no independence, and no legitimacy?
Instead, authority over the grassroots should be handed to traditional rulers. Unlike the imposed chairmen, traditional rulers are closer to their people.
They are respected, visible, and have historical legitimacy that no LGA chairman can ever command. They understand the terrain, the culture, and the needs of their people far better than any politician imposed from the state capital.
Across Nigeria, traditional rulers already play central roles in peacebuilding, community mobilization, and cultural preservation. With adequate resources and constitutional backing, they can do far more for local governance than the failed chairmen who treat council funds as personal allowance. It is a bold reform, but it is the only logical step left if Nigeria truly wants grassroots development.
Those who defend the current LG system argue that it is the “closest government to the people.” But we ask: closest in what sense? In corruption? In inefficiency? In absence? The truth is clear: LGAs are neither close to the people nor serving the people. They are ghost structures — existing in Abuja budget lines, but invisible in rural Nigeria.
Scrapping the LG system is not radical — it is common sense. It is the only way to end decades of waste, duplication, and fraud. Let us devolve real power to traditional rulers, strengthen state assemblies for oversight, and build a two-tier system that works. Enough of this charade. Nigeria can no longer afford to waste billions on councils that deliver nothing but disappointment.
The time to scrap the rot is now. The local government system has outlived its usefulness. It is an experiment gone terribly wrong, and the earlier we bury it, the better for Nigeria.
