The ambiguities in the 1999 Constitution is not the reason why our councillors aren’t performing. Neither is the absence of real local government autonomy the cause.
Today, there are 8,809 councillors in the 774 local government areas in the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory.
Officially included as a third tier of government in the 1979 Constitution and solidified in the 1999 Constitution, local government area has specific functions. The constitution shares roles, saying who a good council chairman and an ideal councillor should be.
Until the people at the grassroots know the functions of local government, end of our sufferings is not in sight. We’ll continue to blame the governor and abuse the president – neither of whom we can directly or easily influence by mere complaints in beer parlours. Of course, the governors and presidents make us suffer the most through series of anti-people policies. But they do so using henchmen who live amongst us as brothers and sisters – the councillors.
The primary responsibilities of councillors include making of by-laws that govern their local government areas. A councillor has the power to legislate on the council’s budget; to participate on budget preparation and approval; to make sure funds are allocated efficiently.
Most importantly, councillors has the oversight and accountability function, implying that a council chairman can’t be wasting public money unless they let him do so.
In August 2025, the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) made the largest disbursement of ₦2.225 trillion to the three tiers of government. Enugu State alone received the sum of ₦230 billion in 2025 from FAAC.
How ordinary people pay salaries of councillors without knowing it
But how does the government generate the money FAAC shares? Simple: from our pockets, from our toils, from our daily sweats and struggles.
My illiterate, poor mother, who is a small-time farmer living in a faraway Oduma in Aninri, has being paying taxes without knowing it. The government does this through a mechanism known as Value Added Tax (VAT). As a farmer, my mother has yam, rice and cocoyam; but she must buy maggi, salts, crayfish, soap, fertiliser and countless other everyday commodities she’ll need even for a simple living. Sometimes she’ll need to call me or her other children on phone.
All this while she’s using those goods and services, she is paying taxes. The companies or the businesses making the supplies are already being taxed 7.5 percent in VAT. The VAT on consumer goods cover almost everyday products, and its hidden in the final price we pay to the shop owner nearby. For example, as my mother buys a bag of fertiliser for ₦50,000 she has paid ₦3,750 in tax. The money goes straight to the government. Now, imagine how much you spend in drinking beer, on transport, buying drugs, paying school fees. Imagine how much you spend in a month on goods and services you need for daily living.
Please imagine the expenses incurred per month by the 240-million population in Nigeria. The 7.5 percent VAT, which is real money from your pockets runs in trillions of naira on monthly basis. That’s the allocation we’re talking about; that’s money from which our councillors are being paid handsome salaries; that’s the money our councillors accumulate to claim superiors and intimidate you; that’s the money the go to costliest hotels to lavish on frivolities.
In other words, the councillor of Oduma ward 2 in Aninri – where my mother resides – is receiving all the financial and illegal benefits from the aggregate sufferings of my mother and my mother’s neighbours in the four communities. She, like all other 9 councillors owe us quality and effective representation in exchange of the VAT from our sweat.
Funny enough, our councillors have their homes next to ours. They’re the government you’re seeing: this is the primary import of the 1976 local government reform which aim is to bring the government to our doorsteps.
Now, think about it. Are you not a fool that you watch your own councillor underperform and sometimes abuse the office while continuing to feed on your daily labour and sufferings?
Imagine all we can achieve when we realise that our councillors are the primary cause of the pains we bear everyday, that we can take immediate and direct actions to wake them up, that we can be better if our councillors are working.
