• Concludes investigations on five local government chairmen over council funds

•FAAC allocations to 774 council areas hit N38.79tn in 25 years

•Agora Policy unveils portal to track funds at grassroots level

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

In a bid to strengthen integrity and accountability in public service, the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) yesterday disclosed that it had completed the verification of asset declarations for high-risk public servants, covering 19 ministers, 37 permanent secretaries, 20 heads of agencies, and 32 other high-risk officials.

It also investigated no fewer than five local government chairmen in the country in connection with the utilisation of funds.

CCB Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Usman Bello, who made the disclosure in Abuja during the graduation of the second cohort of the Policy Writing Fellowship and the official unveiling of the Local Governance Accountability (LGA) Portal and Policy Registry by Agora Policy, noted that as part of efforts to strengthen integrity and accountability in public service, the Bureau had completed verification of asset declarations for high-risk public servants.

He said, “This exercise covered 19 Ministers, 37 Permanent Secretaries, 20 Heads of Agencies, and 32 other high-risk officials. I am also pleased to announce that our Online Asset and Liabilities Declaration System is now 100% developed and ready for deployment and testing. This platform will hold the asset declaration database of all public servants in Nigeria.”

According to him, a part of its enforcement drive, the CCB also secured the forfeiture of several assets, including a property in London.

“We have referred numerous cases to the Code of Conduct Tribunal, and just yesterday (Wednesday) we arraigned the Chief of Staff to a State Governor before the Tribunal. These actions demonstrate our firm resolve to hold public officers accountable regardless of their position or status,” he said.

He applauded Agora Policy’s commitment to strengthening an evidence-driven, inclusive, and robust approach to policymaking and policy engagement as both timely and impactful.

He added The LGA Portal, which provides free access to financial allocations to local councils from 1999 to date, together with council profiles and the names of elected officials, is a powerful instrument for promoting transparency and accountability at the grassroots level.

“The LGA database is particularly important to the Code of Conduct Bureau. At the Code of Conduct Bureau, we firmly believe that sustainable national development and the fight against corruption must begin with strong, accountable local governance,” Bello explained.

In a keynote address, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, observed that Nigeria does not suffer from a shortage of ideas across sectors, adding that over time, there have been plans, strategies, committees, reports, white papers and reform proposals.

However, she pointed out that the more difficult task has always been to convert ideas into priorities, priorities into institutions, institutions into implementation, and implementation into measurable improvements in the lives of citizens.

Usman described this as the central challenge of governance as well as the central opportunity before public policy scholars, practitioners, civic actors and public officials.

Democracy, she argued, is not exhausted by elections, procedures or institutions, but is sustained by participation, communication, shared responsibility, and the continuous engagement of citizens in the affairs that shape their lives.

While applauding Agora Policy for graduation of the second cohort of the Policy Writing Fellowship and the official unveiling of the Local Governance Accountability Portal and Policy Registry, she explained that policymaking is a critical skillset for nation building, sustainable development and global competitiveness.

Earlier in his remarks, the Founder/Executive Director of Agora Policy, Mr. Waziri Adio noted that if the country was really interested in good governance and development, it should not continue ignore what is going on in the local councils.

Citing the Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, Adio said it spells out their functions, which are not trivial.

He stated that adequate financial provisions were made for the 774 local councils which is 20.60 per cent of FAAC allocations, 35 per cent of Value Added Tax (VAT), 10 per cent of states’ internally generated revenues (IGRs), apart from their own internal revenues.

He said, “Enormous resources are pouring into our LGAs, especially in the last three years. From FAAC alone, the least allocation to an LGA is about N500m monthly. Alimosho LGA received N4.9 billion for January 2026 alone.

“One of the best resourced local councils in the world in terms of percentage of total government revenue, only after Switzerland. But our LGAs are almost a black hole, and as a result where the government should be closest to the people, where government should be felt the most, is where it is absent the most.

“We are not without blame: what is not actively demanded will not be consistently supplied. The LGA portal is our humble contribution to changing the direction of travel: designed to empower citizens, civic group, the media and others with the tools to actively hold those in charge at the local level to account.

“Data is important, but agency is more important. Data without agency is just a set of numbers. And we are not without agency. We are not hapless or helpless. If we want better governance at the local level, we need to demand it, and doing it with evidence will surely help.”

Meanwhile, FAAC allocations to Nigeria’s 774 local governments increased significantly over the last 25 years, rising from N167 billion in 2000 to N5.46 trillion in 2025, the highest so far.

The sharpest increases occurred between 2023 and 2025.

This is according to the Local Governance Accountability Portal which was launched yesterday.

Between May 1999 and February 2026, local governments across Nigeria received a cumulative N38.79 trillion in FAAC allocations.

A total of 16 states recorded cumulative allocations exceeding N1 trillion during the period. Lagos ranked highest with N2.69 trillion, while Bayelsa had the lowest allocation at N459.82 billion.