Betraying the Grassroots: How States' Defiance of the Supreme Court Verdict Threatens Tinubu's Legacy and Nigeria's Democracy

By Hon Mohammed Umoru Bravo ESQ 

In July 2024, Nigeria's Supreme Court, the unassailable pinnacle of justice, delivered a verdict that could have reshaped our democracy: full financial autonomy for the 774 local government areas (LGAs). No more joint accounts with state governors. No more choking federal allocations funneled through governors' whims. Direct funding straight to the grassroots, the tier of government closest to the people, owning the markets, schools, clinics, and roads that define daily Nigerian life. Yet, here we are in January 2026, and this promise lies fallow, gathering dust while states look away in brazen defiance.

This is no mere administrative oversight; it's a calculated dishonor of the temple of justice. State governors, many from the APC fold, have treated the ruling like yesterday's news, withholding allocations and perpetuating the stranglehold that has crippled local governance for decades. The implications are seismic, legally, judicially, and politically.

This defiance strikes at the heart of the rule of law. The Supreme Court's judgment is binding, sacrosanct under Section 6(6)(c) of the 1999 Constitution. When states flout it, they invite chaos: a precedent where tomorrow's verdicts on elections, corruption, or rights become optional. Judicially, it compromises the institution itself. Judges who labored over this ruling watch as their authority erodes, breeding cynicism among the bar, bench, and citizenry. The people's justice once a beacon now trades hands for political expediency. If the highest court cannot enforce its word, what hope for the magistrate courts grinding cases in remote villages?

Compromised institutions breed compromised leaders. Governors pocket funds meant for boreholes in rural Kebbi or classrooms in Ebonyi, fattening patronage networks while potholes swallow communities. This isn't governance; it's grand larceny masked as federalism.

It's turn of the people's power to standing firm when justice falters. If states refuse justice, who enforces it? The judiciary holds tools: contempt proceedings, garnishee orders, even asset freezes on defiant governors. Yet, enforcement demands spine. The people, owning local government as the bedrock of democracy, must rise. Mass protests, like those that birthed #EndSARS, can amplify demands. Civil society lawsuits, strategic voting in off-cycle polls, and boycotts of governor-backed projects will sting. Petitions to the EFCC for embezzlement via joint accounts could unmask the thieves. As the saying goes: if no one stands for you, learn to stand firmly for yourself. The grassroots, feeling the betrayal in empty clinics and flooded markets, hold the ultimate veto. Justice has been traded for politics too long. Local governments, starved of funds, remain puppets and unable to deliver security, sanitation, or primary education. Restore autonomy, and watch markets bustle, youth empowered, and poverty retreat.

President Tinubu's reckoning is not too far from now if he continues Ignoring Local Government Autonomy. The President and the party risks APC's Grassroots Betrayal.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, architect of fiscal federalism's dreams, now risks his 2027 reelection on this very fault line. Why? Local governments are the APC's bedrock, rural voters who propelled his 2023 victory with promises of renewal. Deny them autonomy, and the grassroots revolt brews.

Over 70% of Nigerians live in rural LGAs. Governors siphoning funds fuel hunger and unrest; come polls, these voters will remember. Northern strongholds, Southwest bases, APC heartlands will flip to opposition whispers of "Tinubu talks true federalism but delivers chains."

Tinubu's "Renewed Hope" agenda crumbles without empowered locals. Why start reforms like subsidy removal or cybersecurity levies, lacking will to implement this Supreme Court slam-dunk? It's a glaring failure, painting his government as all bark, no bite.

States' defiance implicates the center. As APC leader, Tinubu must withhold federal bailouts from non-compliant governors or invoke emergency powers under Section 305. Fail here, and history indicts him as the president who let federalism die.

Grassroots fury simmers: unemployed youths in Port Harcourt slums, farmers in Kano without irrigation, traders in Lagos markets crushed by fees they can't challenge. They will work against APC's emergence, village by village. Correct this now, Mr. President, deduct allocations directly to LGAs via CBN, as the court envisioned. Rally your party to enforce, not evade. Nigeria's democracy hangs by a thread. APC government, presidency, should without further delay heed the Supreme Court verdict, restore local autonomy and reclaim justice to secure your future or watch the people, the true owners, rise to claim it themselves.