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| Sam Onuigbo |
In the three years since President Bola Tinubu’s administration removed Nigeria’s long-standing petrol subsidy and floated the naira, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has channelled unprecedented volumes of revenue to the three tiers of government. Yet economic hardship remains widespread for ordinary citizens, rural communities lag in basic infrastructure, and local government councils—the tier closest to the people—continue to struggle for meaningful financial independence.
Against this backdrop, former House of Representatives member Sam Onuigbo has issued a pointed call: Nigerians must hold state governors accountable for the windfall and demand that local governments finally receive their constitutional share.
Onuigbo, a two-term federal lawmaker who sponsored Nigeria’s Climate Change Act 2021 and currently serves as President of the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE Legislators International), made the remarks in a recent interaction with journalists in Abuja. He argued that while the federal government has channelled a greater share of post-subsidy revenues downward, most governors have not reciprocated by freeing resources for the grassroots. “Since President Tinubu has done well in funnelling a greater percentage of the revenue accruing from the subsidy removal, state governors should be equally magnanimous in allowing the Local Government Councils to receive their due share,” he stated.
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The numbers underlying his critique are striking. Pre-subsidy monthly FAAC distributions hovered in the hundreds of billions of naira. After the May 2023 reforms, total monthly disbursements have frequently ranged between ₦1.8 trillion and ₦2.6 trillion, with peaks higher still. Cumulative FAAC payouts in the three years following the reforms have been estimated at around ₦47 trillion—more than the total shared in the preceding six years combined. States as a group have seen particularly sharp increases.
Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule publicly noted that his state’s monthly share rose from an average of ₦3.8–4.5 billion before subsidy removal to ₦14–16 billion currently—an increase of roughly 300 percent. Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma, who also chairs the Progressives Governors Forum, has cited the jump in overall monthly FAAC from around ₦784 billion to the ₦1.8–2.6 trillion range. Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed has likewise praised the federal administration for injecting substantial additional resources into the states.
These admissions from governors themselves underscore that subnational governments are no longer scrambling for emergency bailouts to meet salary obligations, as was common in earlier years.
The Progressives Governors Forum has highlighted how the extra funds have strengthened capacity for infrastructure and social programmes. Yet Onuigbo and other observers point to a persistent paradox: visible improvements in living standards, rural roads, primary healthcare, agriculture support, and security at the community level have not matched the scale of the revenue surge for many citizens.
Central to Onuigbo’s argument is the treatment of local government allocations. Under the constitutional formula, the federal government receives approximately 52.68 percent of FAAC revenues, while states and local governments together account for about 47.32 percent (roughly 26.72 percent for states and 20.60 percent for the 774 local government areas). In practice, however, most states continue to route local government funds through Joint Account Committees (JACs) or the State Joint Local Government Account. Onuigbo, who previously served as Finance Commissioner in Abia State, argues this system allows governors to control—and in many cases effectively withhold or divert—resources constitutionally meant for councils.
He singled out Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum and Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu as notable exceptions who have allowed local governments to receive the full value of their federal allocations more directly. In the majority of states, he said, the continued use of joint accounts stifles council chairmen and starves rural development.
The result, in his view, is visible neglect: many local government headquarters overgrown with weeds, limited capacity for agriculture, rural roads, culverts, or basic services, and weaker ability to identify and address early signs of insecurity or restiveness at the community level.
“Governors are no longer running around in search of funds to pay salaries,” Onuigbo observed. “We are also looking at a situation where resources meant for the local government are made available to them to pursue agriculture, so that citizens at the rural level can now engage in productive activities…
When you talk about agriculture, or constructing culverts and tarring of rural roads, you recognise that once the local governments have these resources they would also be able to identify individuals that have the potential to cause trouble.”
He linked the denial of funds to broader problems of unemployment, rural-urban migration, and insecurity.
This critique sits within a longer history of tension over local government autonomy in Nigeria. Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution establishes the State Joint Local Government Account, which has long been criticised as a vehicle for state dominance rather than cooperative federalism. Decades of complaints from the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON), civil society groups, and successive National Assemblies culminated in a landmark Supreme Court judgment on 11 July 2024. The apex court ruled that allocations meant for local governments must be paid directly to them, barred governors from withholding or tampering with those funds, and prohibited the dissolution of democratically elected councils in favour of caretaker committees.
Implementation, however, has been uneven. More than two years later, many states continue practices that keep effective control at the state level, prompting ongoing calls for constitutional clarification, legislative reforms to abolish or redesign the joint account system, and stronger enforcement mechanisms.
Civil society organisations, including SERAP, have repeatedly demanded public accounting for the “subsidy savings” that flowed through FAAC—estimated in various analyses at trillions of naira to states alone. Labour unions and analysts have noted that while nominal FAAC figures have soared (partly driven by naira depreciation as well as higher oil and non-oil receipts), real purchasing power and per-capita impact have been eroded by inflation.
The gap between revenue inflows and tangible public goods has fuelled public frustration and calls for greater transparency in state budgeting, procurement, and project delivery.
Onuigbo’s intervention also carries a political dimension as the 2027 general elections approach. He argued that re-electing President Tinubu would help avoid policy reversals that could undermine the fiscal gains already recorded. At the same time, he urged voters to challenge governors specifically on their stewardship of the increased allocations. “If we have a similar synergy among the local governments, state and federal levels, in no distant time you will have a well-rounded nation, where rural to urban migration and unemployment will be drastically reduced. We know we have the resources, and it needs to percolate down to the grassroots,” he declared.
The former lawmaker’s own trajectory adds weight to his focus on systemic governance. Beyond his legislative work on climate change—which created Nigeria’s National Council on Climate Change and a framework for emissions reduction and climate finance—he has consistently advocated for stronger subnational capacity and grassroots empowerment.
His current role leading GLOBE Legislators places him at the intersection of national fiscal debates and global conversations on sustainable development, where effective local institutions are widely recognised as essential for climate resilience, food security, and inclusive growth.
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The broader context is one of fiscal paradox. Nigeria’s three tiers of government have collectively received far more resources than in the pre-reform era. Some states have channelled the increase into visible projects—flyovers, road dualisations, hospitals, and agricultural initiatives—as governors such as Sule have detailed. Others face sharper questions about results relative to inflows. Without stronger mechanisms for citizen oversight, independent audits of joint accounts, full implementation of the Supreme Court ruling, and genuine fiscal autonomy for local councils, the risk remains that record FAAC numbers will continue to coexist with stagnant rural development and public disillusionment.
Onuigbo’s message is ultimately one of democratic responsibility. The federal reforms have expanded the resource envelope. The test now lies with state executives—and with the voters who elect them—to ensure those resources deliver measurable improvements in daily life, particularly for communities far from state capitals. As he put it, the next election cycle offers an opportunity to demand precisely that accounting. Whether that demand translates into sustained pressure for transparency, direct funding to local governments, and results-oriented governance will help determine if Nigeria’s post-subsidy revenue surge becomes a genuine foundation for more balanced development or another chapter in the long story of resources that fail to reach the grassroots.
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