Why Tinubu Allows Govs To Fiddle With LG Funds

The 2023 Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the unwillingness to implement last year’s Supreme Court judgment affirming financial autonomy for the 774 local governments in the country.

In the judgment delivered by the apex court in July last year, the federal government was ordered to pay the monthly LGAS allocations directly to their accounts, instead of paying the sum into the State/ LGA Joint account, which the court said state governors have appropriated for years.

But more than a year after, Abubakar said the federal government has yet to implement the judgment, blaming President Tinubu for the delay, accusing the president of using the funds as  “bargaining chip” with state governors to keep them under his control.

The former vice president spoke a few days after President Tinubu threatened to invoke an Executive Order to ensure that the Supreme court judgment is implemented.

Abubakar who shared the remark on his X stated that the president was merely grandstanding on the issue, saying his action amounts to disobedience to the nation’s apex court.

He wrote:” Dear Bola Ahmed Tinubu, by July next year, your administration will have spent two full years deliberately ignoring a binding judgment of the Supreme Court directing the Federal Government to implement direct FAAC allocation to local governments.

“This is not a delay. It is defiance. Your refusal to act is a calculated political move—using obedience to the law as a bargaining chip to force opposition governors into the APC and to keep governors within your party firmly under your control. In doing so, you have reduced the Constitution to a tool of convenience and governance to partisan bargaining.

“Let us be clear: Supreme Court judgments are final, not optional. Persistently refusing to enforce one is a direct breach of the Constitution and a violation of the oath you swore to Nigerians.

“Local governments are the closest arm of government to the people. By withholding their financial autonomy (which ironically you’ve been trumpeting as a core cardinal policy), you are not weakening governors; you are crippling communities, stalling development, and deepening poverty at the grassroots. Roads remain broken, health centres abandoned, salaries unpaid—not by accident, but by choice.

“This situation does not require threats of Executive Orders or political drama. The solution is simple: instruct the Attorney-General of the Federation to enforce the judgment immediately. Anything short of this is a failure of leadership.

“Your continued inaction sends a clear message: that political control matters more than constitutional duty, that party dominance matters more than economic justice, and that regime survival outweighs the daily suffering of Nigerians already battered by harsh economic policies.

“Nigeria deserves leadership that obeys the law it swore to protect, not one that bends it for political gain.”