Nigeria cannot defeat insecurity without functional full LG autonomy — SAN

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and policy analyst, Dr Monday Ubani, has issued a warning that Nigeria’s persistent and escalating insecurity will remain fundamentally unresolved unless the Federal Government directly addresses what he describes as the most neglected pillar of national safety, a functional and fully empowered local government (LG) system.

Dr Ubani noted that despite decades of substantial investment in military operations, counter-terrorism campaigns, mass security recruitment, and advanced surveillance technologies, the nation continues to reel from rising kidnappings, banditry, and violent community attacks.

This failure, he insisted, is because the tier of government constitutionally positioned to act as the first responder remains politically weakened and financially crippled.

Reacting to the country’s latest security crisis, the policy analyst pointed out that the Federal Government’s recent National Emergency on Insecurity, unveiled by President Bola Tinubu, regrettably omits the most crucial structural reform, the restoration of capacity and autonomy to local governments.

He acknowledged that the current security package includes positive steps like recruiting more personnel and withdrawing police protection from VIPs, but asserted that these steps cannot succeed without fixing grassroots governance.

Ubani argued that security threats do not originate in the Federal Capital Territory or state capitals but emerge first in communities, rural settlements, and neglected neighbourhoods.

According to the SAN, “Since these vulnerable areas fall squarely under local government jurisdiction, councils are inherently designed to detect early threats, effectively mobilise community responses, and support primary policing efforts. However, they have been systematically stripped of the capacity to perform these functions.

“The institutional manipulation of the system, particularly through the State Joint Local Government Account and other political controls, has allowed state governments to seize council funds, impose loyalists, and effectively undermine independent administration.

“This has resulted in many local councils functioning merely as extensions of state executives rather than as robust, frontline governance institutions.”

Ubani cautioned that a local government incapable of maintaining rural roads for security patrols, providing street lighting, supporting local vigilante structures, empowering traditional authorities, or funding local surveillance tools is a council rendered entirely ineffective in protecting its population.

This administrative vacuum, he added, is precisely what has created ungoverned spaces where bandits and kidnappers flourish and operate with impunity.

“No matter how many security personnel are recruited, or how advanced our surveillance equipment becomes, no national strategy can succeed when communities remain abandoned and disconnected from governance,” he stated emphatically.

Ubani described full constitutional and financial autonomy for local governments as the single most urgent and foundational reform needed to stem insecurity at its roots.

While commending the previous attempt by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to seek Supreme Court clarity on the issue, he lamented that such political interference frustrated the initiative.

Calling on President Tinubu to act decisively, Dr Ubani concluded that direct funding and unrestricted autonomy for local councils must now be treated as a definitive national priority.

“The path to a safer Nigeria begins with strengthening the tier of government closest to the people. Non-functional local government administration breeds insecurity. The sooner we confront this truth, the sooner Nigeria can make real progress,” he posited.

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