A non-governmental organisation, Peasants Empowerment Concern Initiative (PECi) has charged Nigerians to wake up and recover their local government areas hijacked by Governors.
The group gave this charge to Nigerians on Sunday ahead of the first anniversary of financial autonomy granted to Local Government Areas (LGAs) by the Supreme Court landmark judgment of July 11, 2024.
"Our dear Compatriots, four days to the first anniversary of financial autonomy granted to Local Government Areas (LGAs) by the Supreme Court landmark judgment of July 11, 2024; a Non-Governmental Organisation, PECi (Peasants Empowerment Concern Initiative) is alarmed that our countrymen are sleeping over our right," Mr Osita Okechukwu stated in a press release on behalf of the group on Sunday.
According to Okechukwu, the group regretted the utter contempt of this landmark judgment and lamented that Nigerians have regrettably and ignorantly refused to monitor the management of their local government funds as granted by the Supreme Court judgment.
PECi cited examples of the casualties suffered because of Nigerians laxity or sheer ignorance of holding their councillors accountable as demanded by the Supreme Court judgment, such as the absence of primary school pupils of the Federal Capital Territory from classes for months since the beginning of 2025, Mokwa flood disaster, palpable insecurity at the LGAs, and dilapidated rural roads.
The group recounted that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, a former governor and witness to the financial repression at the grassroots level consequent upon planlessness and squandermania which made nonsense of the humongous revenues that accrued from Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) to LGCs in 25 years of our 4th Republic, resorted to the Supreme Court to resolve the impasse.
PECi posited that LGA is the foundation of our grassroots democracy and corollary financial autonomy is the handgun for the expansion of its frontiers and improvement of the prosperity of peasants residents in our 8,809 wards mostly located in rural communities nationwide.
The group appealed to all patriots and people of goodwill to rise up and collectively recover our patrimony and bid goodbye to the governors who have hitherto hijacked local government funds.
PECi pledged to adopt checks and balances and feedback mechanism in guarding and monitoring the management of revenue accruing monthly from FAAC to our 774 Local Government Counci
The group disclosed that its strategy of vetting Local Government Councils finance is primarily real time information on multimedia - radios, televisions, print media, and social media.