MR. PRESIDENT, BE SERIOUS FOR ONCE: ENFORCE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTONOMY NOW OR LOSE THE GRASSROOTS


By David Alani Ige (The Scribe)

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR 
President Federal Republic of Nigeria 


An Open Memo To:His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR


Mr. President, the time for political diplomacy is over. The honeymoon of empty promises has officially expired. Two full years ago, on July 11, 2024, the Supreme Court of Nigeria handed you the ultimate legal weapon to liberate the Nigerian masses: a landmark judgment granting full, unadulterated financial autonomy to the 774 Local Governments. 


You have the highest judicial backing in the land. You possess the absolute executive powers of the Commander-in-Chief. Yet, the 774 local governments remain chained, starved, and economically paralyzed because your administration is playing a dangerous game of political appeasement with state governors. Mr. President, it is time to be serious for once. 



The 2027 Compromise: Trading the Masses for Governors' Support

The whispers in the corridors of power have become deafening shouts on the streets. Nigerians are fully aware that the Presidency is stalling the enforcement of this autonomy simply to avoid offending the state governors ahead of the 2027 general elections. 


This is a tragic betrayal of the "Renewed Hope" mandate. Are the political egos of 36 governors more important than the survival of over 200 million Nigerians? The governors have stubbornly refused to comply with the Supreme Court, exploiting constitutional loopholes to maintain their illegal grip on the State-Local Government Joint Account (SJLGA). They are effectively holding the grassroots hostage, and your silence, Mr. President, is beginning to look like complicity. 



The Grassroots Are Bleeding

While Abuja plays politics, rural Nigeria is collapsing. 

 Look at our rural roads—they are impassable death traps because local councils lack the funds to grade them. 

 Look at our primary healthcare centers—they are glorified consulting rooms without drugs or doctors. 

Look at our national security—terrorists and bandits have annexed our ungoverned rural spaces because local chairmen are too broke to fund community vigilantes or clear the forests. 


Food inflation is destroying families because the local governments, which should be driving agricultural subsidies and rural infrastructure, have been reduced to mere salary-paying appendages of the state capitals. Mr. President, your macroeconomic reforms at the federal level will continue to fail spectacularly as long as the micro-economy at the grassroots remains financially castrated.


You Have the Knife and the Yam. Cut It!

In December 2025, you famously warned the governors that you might be forced to issue an Executive Order to ensure direct allocations. You boldly declared, "I have the knife, I have the yam, I will cut it." Where is that knife today, Mr. President? 


A judicial pronouncement without executive enforcement is nothing but a toothless bulldog. You must immediately direct the Accountant-General of the Federation, the Ministry of Finance, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to strictly bypass any state government and credit the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) funds directly to the dedicated accounts of the local councils. Deploy the EFCC and the NFIU to relentlessly monitor these funds and jail any local chairman or governor who attempts to divert them. 



Mr. President, you built your political legacy as a fearless democrat who fought military juntas to a standstill. Do not let history record that when you finally had the executive power to engineer the greatest wealth redistribution and rural development framework since Nigeria's independence, you folded your arms because of 2027 election mathematics.


The ordinary Nigerian is watching. The grassroots are waiting. Execute this autonomy with brutal, uncompromising executive fiat. Let your dream for the survival of the ordinary citizen come to fruition. 


Be serious, Mr. President. Act now.




 David Alani Ige (The Scribe)

Public Policy Analyst, Institutional Archivist, and Publisher of Ayekooto Media.

Phunshor01@gmail.com

Igboho, Oyo State.


 




















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