…the Nigerian Local Government Integrity Index is not just a report; it is a call to conscience. It demands that we, as citizens, stop viewing corruption as a distant, federal problem and start confronting it where it hurts us most — at the local level, where roads are untarred, schools lack teachers, and health centres have no drugs. It challenges CSOs, policymakers, and development partners to turn data into action, and autonomy into accountability.
In July 2024, Nigeria’s Supreme Court delivered a historic judgment affirming the financial autonomy of local governments, in a decision many celebrated as the rebirth of grassroots democracy. For decades, the third tier of government had been trapped under the control of state executives, its resources sequestered, and its democratic essence eroded by caretaker committees. Yet, while the judgment marked a monumental victory, autonomy alone does not guarantee accountability. The crucial question now is how to measure whether our local councils are truly governing with transparency, integrity, and service delivery at their core.
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It is in answering this question that the Nigerian Local Government Integrity Index (NLGII) was born. Developed by the Center for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity (CeFTPI), the Index represents Nigeria’s first-ever comprehensive, evidence-based framework for assessing the risks of governance and corruption across all the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the country. It moves beyond rhetoric and perception to measure, with data, the state of integrity, accountability, and fiscal transparency at the level closest to citizens. For the first time in the country’s history, citizens, policymakers, and civil society organisations can see a data-driven picture of how their local governments are performing, and where the cracks in governance truly lie.
The findings of the inaugural NLGII report are as bold as they are sobering. An overwhelming 85 per cent of LGAs fall within the “Very High” or “Critical” risk categories, marked by opacity, weak enforcement, and abysmal service delivery. Only a handful of LGAs across the federation demonstrate what true accountability looks like, showing that reform is possible when there is political will, citizen oversight, and fiscal transparency. Nasarawa Local Government in Nasarawa State leads the nation as a model of integrity, while places like Port Harcourt, Ohaji/Egbema, and Magu represent the depth of dysfunction and opacity that define the local governance landscape.
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The Index is built on eight core pillars that together capture the essence of good governance: fiscal transparency, financial resources, anti-corruption enforcement, post-election governance, civic oversight, service delivery, digital infrastructure, and security environment. Each LGA’s performance across these pillars is measured on a standardised scale and aggregated into a composite risk score. The model allows citizens and policymakers alike to see at a glance where the governance risks lie, how LGAs compare to one another, and what specific weaknesses demand attention. Importantly, the Index uses objective data — not perceptions — combining Freedom of Information requests, existing datasets from national institutions, and independent verification from civil society and media monitoring.
For policymakers, the Index is a guide to where reform is needed most. It provides a diagnostic foundation for targeting oversight, enforcing financial autonomy, and incentivising performance. The report recommends that the Federal Government ensures direct FAAC transfers to local governments, links federal grants to improved integrity scores, and subjects high-risk LGAs to mandatory transparency audits. State governments, on their part, must end interference, legislate transparency, and support digital governance at the local level.
Beyond the numbers, the NLGII exposes a deeper structural crisis. Local governments are the nurseries of democracy, designed to bring governance closer to the people and deliver essential services like primary education, healthcare, and water. Yet, across the country, these institutions have been hollowed out by years of interference, political capture, and systemic neglect. Billions of naira are allocated to LGAs every month, yet in most cases, there are no published budgets, audit reports, or procurement records. Citizens rarely know how funds are spent, who manages them, or what outcomes they produce. The absence of transparency has turned many LGAs into black boxes of corruption, where accountability is the exception, rather than the norm.
For citizens, the Index is an empowering tool. It offers, for the first time, a mirror into how their local councils perform. If your LGA is ranked in the “Very High” or “Critical” risk tier, it is not merely a statistic — it is a call to action. It means you have the right and responsibility to demand access to budgets, attend local council meetings, file Freedom of Information requests, and insist on the publication of financial data. Citizen vigilance, when combined with institutional transparency, can rebuild the broken link between local governance and community development.
For policymakers, the Index is a guide to where reform is needed most. It provides a diagnostic foundation for targeting oversight, enforcing financial autonomy, and incentivising performance. The report recommends that the Federal Government ensures direct FAAC transfers to local governments, links federal grants to improved integrity scores, and subjects high-risk LGAs to mandatory transparency audits. State governments, on their part, must end interference, legislate transparency, and support digital governance at the local level. For local councils themselves, the message is simple: Publish your budgets, engage your citizens, and make accountability a habit, not a performance.
Civil society organisations and the media stand at the centre of this accountability ecosystem. With the NLGII as a compass, CSOs can design data-driven advocacy, track performance over time, and challenge opacity through legal and civic tools. The media can use the Index to focus investigative reporting on high-risk councils, highlight reform champions, and sustain national attention on local corruption. For researchers, the Index offers a new frontier — a dataset for exploring the relationship between autonomy, governance, and development outcomes across Nigeria’s diverse regions.
The task before us is therefore collective. We must insist that our councils publish what they spend, that our representatives attend to the people, and that our communities demand results. Only then can the promise of democracy — government by and for the people — find meaning at the grassroots. The Nigerian Local Government Integrity Index gives us the map; what remains is the courage to follow it.
The 2024 Supreme Court ruling outlawing caretaker committees and guaranteeing financial autonomy is a milestone, but the NLGII warns against mistaking autonomy for accountability. Freedom from state control is only meaningful if local councils use it to strengthen institutions, not to reproduce the same patterns of secrecy and waste. True reform must therefore be anchored in transparency mechanisms, digital innovation, and citizen oversight.
Ultimately, the Nigerian Local Government Integrity Index is not just a report; it is a call to conscience. It demands that we, as citizens, stop viewing corruption as a distant, federal problem and start confronting it where it hurts us most — at the local level, where roads are untarred, schools lack teachers, and health centres have no drugs. It challenges CSOs, policymakers, and development partners to turn data into action, and autonomy into accountability. The Index proves that while Nigeria’s local governance is in crisis, it is also at a crossroads. Reform is possible, but it must begin with integrity.
The task before us is therefore collective. We must insist that our councils publish what they spend, that our representatives attend to the people, and that our communities demand results. Only then can the promise of democracy — government by and for the people — find meaning at the grassroots. The Nigerian Local Government Integrity Index gives us the map; what remains is the courage to follow it.
Muhammad Ahmad Iliyasu is the strategic communications officer at CeFTPI.
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