By Victor Anayochukwu Jonah Esq.
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INTRODUCTION:
In a plural society like Nigeria, decentralized governance is widely regarded as essential for development and inclusive progress. Growing up in a boundary town after the military rule, I witnessed firsthand how a truly democratically elected local government administration revitalized a once-forgotten community. Fair elections along the arteries of grassroots power gave ordinary citizens a sense of connection and ownership in governance.
Yet, over time, the unchecked dominance of the state governors and President has eroded local government autonomy. Political appointees have replaced elected councils, and state-managed local polls often lack credibility. This weakening of grassroots democracy has contributed to ungoverned rural spaces, heightened insecurity, and economic stagnation in agrarian regions, as political focus remains centered on Abuja and state capitals.
Against this backdrop, President Tinubu appointed renowned silk, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice on August 16, 2023. Despite skepticism on the President’s ascendence to power, this appointment was well received within the legal community. In May 2024, Chief Fagbemi invoked the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction to enforce constitutional local-government autonomy. The Court’s July 12, 2024, judgment was widely celebrated.
However, the federal government soon paused implementation on political grounds. Conflicting legal advisories and selective enforcement—particularly against oppositionled states—undermined the apex court’s landmark judgment. On February 20, 2025, the Attorney-General publicly condemned planned local elections in Rivers and Osun States, both governed by opposition parties, signaling a return to politicized control. What could have been a landmark reform was reduced to a tactical maneuver, sacrificing national progress on the altar of partisan interests.
This paper dissects President Tinubu’s zigzag, visionless approach to governance and the elevation of politicking to the detriment of nationhood and the national fabric.
INDISPENSABILITY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
In advanced democracies, local authorities—such as boroughs, counties, and municipalities—serve as the most accessible fortresses of security and economic life. Daily governance demands typically fall within their remit, and their administrative reach often influences outcomes beyond state or national directives. In the United States, for instance, any attempt by a state to usurp local powers would likely trigger severe security and economic consequences.
This contrast highlights how far Nigeria’s local government system has drifted from its founding purpose. The 1979 and 1999 Constitutions sought to establish a governance model that connects directly to the people. It is widely acknowledged that federal and state institutions lack the capacity, local insight, and reach to effectively oversee Nigeria’s 774 local government areas and thousands of wards.
Having lived in a remote border town in Northeast Nigeria, I witnessed firsthand the disconnect between federal and state authorities and the realities of life in Nigeria’s hinterlands. An average Lagosian, Abuja, or even Jalingo resident, for instance, is often unfamiliar with the Ndola-speaking Mambiloid communities tucked away in the highlands of Taraba State. These populations remain largely ungoverned, their peculiarities scarcely understood, and their needs barely addressed by distant bureaucracies. In the early post-1999 years, independent and well-funded local councils brought tangible improvements – security, infrastructure, and economic vitality – to these otherwise forgotten enclaves. But over time, successive state administrations hollowed out local government finances, fueling unemployment, insecurity, stalled development, and declining agricultural output.
This is the reality across much of rural Nigeria. Without restoring autonomous and adequately financed local governments, answerable to their communities rather than state governors, no policy from Abuja or state capitals can meaningfully reverse these systemic failures.
LEGAL ENSHIRINEMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMINSTRATION IN NIGERIA
Section 7 of the 1999 Constitution breathes life into local government through a structured democratic process. In the same breath, unbeknownst to itself, it suffocated this critical institution by ceding care and control to state governments.
Its financial lifeline, under Section 162(6) of the Constitution, was meant to be a shared contribution by the federal and state governments. Ironically, state governors across political divides have seized local government accounts, weakening grassroots service delivery, as envisaged in the fourth schedule to the Constitution.
Local elections, overseen by State Resident Electoral Commissions in all 36 states, have become a mere caricature: 90% – 100% of seats are guaranteed to be won by the political party in control or sanctioned by the State governor.
As far back as 2007, the Supreme Court berated and warned State governors (through the then Oyo State governor, Christopher Alao-Akala) against the practice of appointing
Caretaker Committees or Sole Administrators in place of democratically elected Local Government heads. (See Inakoju v. Adeleke (2007) 4 NWLR (Pt. 1032) 423 SC.). There were several decisions along this line before the Supreme Court’s most recent ruling, delivered under the Tinubu administration on July 11, 2024. It was widely perceived that the Federal Government’s suit in Attorney General of the Federation v. Attorney General of Abia State & 35 Ors (SC/CV/343/2024) was motivated by political expediency rather than by any genuine legal deficiency in enforcing local government autonomy by withholding federal allocations from states that failed to meet the minimum standards for democratic elections.
Sadly, the Supreme Court’s recent, commendable decision is gradually being undermined as the President appears to be using it as an instrument of political settlement, contrary to the Court’s original intent. The Federal Government now deploys the ruling to curry favor with state governors ahead of the 2027 elections, as the President’s popularity across the country continues to dwindle due to myopic, poorly thought-out and implemented policies. Osun and Rivers State are classical examples.
TINUBU’S “GOVERNANCE FOR POLITICS” VS. “POLITICS FOR GOVERNANCE leadership in a diverse and large country like Nigeria, no doubt, comes with unique challenges. The office of Nigerian President is a repository of enormous constitutional powers, an apparent misnomer in a supposed federal system. These huge and rarely checked powers calls upon the President to harbor good conscience and discharge the functions of his office patriotically and as a nationalist.
Given the peculiarity of Nigeria, the President ought not lend himself to a public perception of sectionalism, nepotism or undue politicization of core governmental duties. The President’s vision must at all times be tailored to the greater majority of Nigerians, not a select few.
The economic, security, or infrastructural decisions of a Nigerian President must be devoid of primordial considerations made merely to attain political advantage. They must be tailored to salvage the teething challenges that plague the country and broad enough to contemplate generations unborn. They must be visionary and not myopic or short-sighted.
While not minimizing the quantum of rot left by President Tinubu’s predecessors, there is near unanimity of view among logical and reasonable members of society that most of President Tinubu’s decisions since assuming office on May 29, 2023, have been necessitated by sectional and political expediency rather than by long-term national interest, hence their shambolic impact on Nigerian lives.
There is no doubt that President Tinubu is a resolute and politically astute leader within the context of politicking in Nigeria’s socio-political milieu, yet it is a painful contrast that his avaricious quest for political power at all costs has evidently not been to serve the greater good of the gasping Nigerian populace. It has instead been used for selfperpetuation in power.
CONCLUSION
It is my firm submission that Nigeria’s thirst for permeation of security, infrastructure, and a boisterous economy across the nooks and crannies of the federation will continue to be a mirage unless an independent and virile local government system is strengthened. Strengthening this critical institution does not necessarily require new legislation so much as it demands bold political will on the part of the federal government to reinforce public institutions for the national interest as opposed to political ends.
The four corners of the recent Supreme Court decision reaffirming local-government autonomy must be implemented to the fullest. The federal government lacks constitutional power to tinker, unilaterally, with the decisions of courts of competent jurisdiction. Needless to say, the federal government’s effort to lay a catastrophic precedent in Rivers State, through President Tinubu’s anointed Sole Administrator, is yet another nail driven into the coffin of Nigeria’s local government institutions. Its signal and effects may haunt the institution for years to come.
VICTOR ANAYOCHUKWU JONAH ESQ. LAGOS BASED LEGAL PRACTITIONER Victorjonah89@yahoo.com
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