How Nigeria’s 774 LGAs squander N1.5trn allocation–Chidoka

Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Mr. Osita Chidoka, has
described the local government administration as a cesspit of
corruption through which an estimated N1.5 trillion of the na­
tion’s statutory allocations are drained annually.
He said this phenomenon has left majority of citizens living at
the grassroots in abject poverty.
Chidoka, who delivered the 44th Convocation Lecture at the
University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) on Thursday said the
foundation and building blocks for a vibrant Nigerian economy
and citizens was to be found in local councils but this has
often been wasted under the Nigerian system.
He however, stunned the audience when he said there was the
total absence of valid data capturing or storage of information
for the public to access in any of the contemporary
Information Communication and Technology (ICT) mediums in
almost all of Nigeria’s 774 local government councils.
In a paper entitled, “Rebuilding the Nigerian Dream: Mapping
the Building Blocks”, the Nigerian Minister of Aviation said it
was most shocking to discover that except for Yewa South
Local Government in Ogun State, no other local government
council in Nigeria has a functional website.
He described the absence of these websites as “the black
hole” through which massive fraud is carried out in the
country. According to him, about N1.5 trillion is mismanaged
annually by local government councils in Nigeria.
“Looking at the amount devoted to ICT, a cursory web search
for local governments in Nigeria produced no results. In fact,
the Yewa South Local Government in Ogun State is the only
one that has a website and even that lacks quality information
about the activities of that local council as neither its annual
budget nor any of the services it provides are online,” said
Chidoka.
“Managing a transparent public institution requires making
information readily available. We met a black hole; that black
hole can only be a cover for the mismanagement of over N1.5
trillion sent to local governments annually,” he lamented.
According to Chidoka, Nigeria’s 774 local government councils
are all well funded through statutory monthly allocations from
the federation account and even generate their own internal
revenues.
He said it was important all tiers of government are brought
together and information about them digitalised.
“The absence of records has made it difficult for Nigeria to
build social trust and modern infrastructure. We need to
digitalise information and make records available to all
citizens,” said Chidoka.
“Digitalising public records will accelerate our economic
growth and facilitate job creation. The proper collection and
digitalising of records at the local government level will open
up new avenues for generating revenues from taxes and will
combat corruption,” he added.