More than two years after the landmark Supreme Court judgment granting financial and administrative independence to Nigeria’s 774 local government councils, a crucial question remains: How many states have actually implemented the ruling in full?
As of September 2026, there is still no officially verified nationwide figure establishing that a specific number of Nigerian states have fully implemented every aspect of the Supreme Court’s July 11, 2024 judgment.
Available evidence instead suggests that implementation remains uneven, with significant differences between states that have enacted legal reforms, those claiming compliance and those that have actually transferred control of local government finances to the councils.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Attorney-General of the Federation v. Attorney-General of Abia State & 35 Others ordered that funds allocated to local governments from the Federation Account should be paid directly to the councils. The court also held that state governments could not continue withholding or controlling funds meant for local governments and reaffirmed the constitutional requirement for democratically elected local government administrations.
Jigawa: The clearest documented example
Jigawa State currently has the strongest available evidence of practical financial implementation.
According to reporting published in July 2026, the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria in Jigawa said that all 27 local government councils receive their allocations directly from the Federal Government into independent accounts, without deductions by the state government.
The report described Jigawa as a notable exception to the wider national situation and said the arrangement had improved transparency and strengthened grassroots service delivery.
Jigawa's own official financial documents also separately account for its 27 local government councils and their Federation Account revenues.
On the evidence currently available, Jigawa is therefore the safest state to identify as having actually achieved direct financial autonomy in practice.
What about Lagos?
Lagos presents a more complicated situation.
The state has long maintained that its local councils enjoy substantial administrative and financial independence. However, the structure of local government in Lagos creates an additional constitutional question because the state operates 20 constitutionally recognised LGAs alongside 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs).
Recent official activity shows that the Lagos State House of Assembly continues to exercise oversight over the finances of both the 20 LGAs and 37 LCDAs. In September 2026, the Assembly commenced consideration of the 2024 audit reports covering the councils.
Consequently, while Lagos may have implemented important elements of local-government autonomy, the available evidence does not provide sufficient grounds to categorically classify it as fully compliant with every element of the Supreme Court judgment.
Nasarawa: Legal reform, but implementation is another question
Nasarawa took a significant legislative step in November 2024 when Governor Abdullahi Sule signed the state's Local Government Law 2024.
The governor specifically said the law abolished the local-government joint-account system in an effort to promote accountability and comply with the Supreme Court's financial-autonomy judgment.
However, passing legislation and establishing practical autonomy are not necessarily the same thing. Full implementation requires evidence that councils actually control their funds and operate without state-level interference.
Abia and other states
Abia has also been reported as having local councils operating independent bank accounts. However, available reporting indicates that questions remain about whether the federal allocations themselves are being transferred directly in accordance with the Supreme Court's ruling.
Similar uncertainties remain across several other states.
Reports have raised concerns about continued state involvement in local-government finances in places including Benue, Kano, Kaduna, Plateau and Sokoto, among others.
This explains why simply counting states that have passed new laws or opened separate accounts can produce a misleading picture.
The bigger national picture
The scale of the implementation problem became particularly clear in July 2026.
An analysis published by The PUNCH found that local governments received approximately ₦10.48 trillion through FAAC allocations between July 2024 and June 2026. Yet, almost two years after the Supreme Court judgment, significant uncertainty remained over whether the money was being transferred directly into council-controlled accounts nationwide.
The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission was still working with ALGON in August 2026 to strengthen local-government administration, advance fiscal autonomy and ensure that increased resources translate into tangible grassroots development.
Academic analysis has similarly concluded that the Supreme Court decision has been more symbolic than transformative, largely because constitutional, legal and practical implementation problems remain unresolved.
Even President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was still pressing governors in December 2025 to comply with the ruling, warning that he could take further executive action if governors failed to implement direct funding for local governments.
So, how many states have fully implemented local-government autonomy?
The most defensible answer, based on the evidence presently available, is:
Jigawa is the only state that can be confidently identified as having clear, documented evidence of full direct financial implementation.
That does not necessarily mean every other state has failed to implement the judgment. Several states have enacted legislation, created independent accounts or announced reforms. But those actions should not automatically be described as full autonomy.
Full implementation should mean more than opening a bank account. It should include direct access to Federation Account allocations, financial independence from state governments, democratically elected councils and the absence of state control over funds constitutionally belonging to local governments.
Therefore, claims that 10, 15, 20 or more states have already achieved full local-government autonomy should be treated cautiously unless supported by verifiable evidence for each state.
The central issue is no longer whether the Supreme Court has spoken. It has.
The real question is whether Nigeria's 36 state governments have actually allowed the country's 774 local governments to operate as the autonomous third tier of government the Constitution and the Supreme Court judgment envisage.
And, as the evidence available in September 2026 suggests, Nigeria is still some distance from a nationwide answer of “yes.”
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