The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to disclose whether it has commenced direct disbursement of funds from the Federation Account to the country’s 774 local government areas, in line with the Supreme Court’s 2024 judgement.
Development Diaries reports that the civil society organisation (CSO) also asked the CBN to immediately disclose whether any direct payment has been made from the Federation Account to the local councils in Rivers State and to explain the rationale for any such payment.
In a Freedom of Information (FOI) request signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP urged the CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, to act swiftly in ensuring public access to the details of any disbursement.
The organisation stressed that transparency in the disbursement process is critical to upholding the rule of law and preventing political interference in local governance.
‘The CBN ought to act in the public interest to ensure that the 774 councils in the country directly get their allocations from the Federation Account, as ordered by the Supreme Court’, Oluwadare said in the statement.
He added that any failure to comply could be interpreted as complicity in the ongoing denial of constitutionally guaranteed financial autonomy for local governments.
SERAP referenced the Supreme Court’s July 2024 ruling, which held that governors or any other authority have no legal right to control or disburse funds meant for local councils.
According to the court, all allocations from the Federation Account must go directly to democratically elected local government councils. The ruling aims to curb the longstanding practice of state governments withholding or mismanaging local council funds.
The CSO warned that continued disregard for the Supreme Court judgement by state governors undermines judicial authority and threatens democratic governance.
‘The CBN should be facilitating compliance with the Supreme Court’s orders. If state governors get away with ignoring the court, it will undermine the ability of the bank to credibly perform its constitutional and statutory duties’, SERAP stated, adding that full enforcement of the ruling is essential ahead of the 2027 general elections.
