Folarin Kehinde

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has revealed that only seven out of 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria have functional websites where information about their activities, spending and other critical information can be accessed.

The anti-graft agency specifically said owing to lack of functional websites, there is a transparency challenge across all the third tier of government, saying all the six geo-political zones are culpable.

Musa Aliyu, the Chairman of the ICPC, who disclosed this when he appeared on a Channels TV programme on Friday anchored by a former Presidential spokesman, Laolu Akande, also disclosed that some workers in the health sector and schools also divert donations for their personal use.

Daily Trust reports that the issue of local government autonomy has been on the front burner since last year when the Supreme Court gave a landmark judgment that granted financial autonomy to the third tier of government.

But one year after the apex court’s judgment, the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration has yet to enforce the ruling, as state governments under the leadership of governors continue to have control over the councils’ coffers.

Local governments are saddled with the responsibilities of ensuring the well-being of the people at the grassroots through provisions of primary education, primary health centres, marketplaces, inner roads, parks, sanitation, among other essential services. But over the years, state governments have usurped these roles.

Speaking during the programme monitored by our correspondent, the ICPC boss explained that it would be difficult for Nigerians to enjoy good governance if critical information about LGAs remains shrouded in secrecy.

“Recently, because of the focal decision, we have now initiated a programme we call corruption prevention programme in the local government areas. We are using five thematic areas: One, the issue of open fiscal transparency, open procurements, the issue of corruption control, human resources and citizen engagement.

“Also, we are now trying to say, okay, we developed that each local government should have a website so that they can put out information. What we discovered was that there are only seven local governments with functional websites in Nigeria. That is to say we have a lot of problems because we cannot go all over.

“That’s why we say, okay, why can’t we have a website? Publish these things, so that people will know what you’re doing, otherwise, it will be difficult for us to know, so that there will be transparency.

“All these local government areas are not from one geo-political zone. Almost all the LGAs in all the six geo-political zones don’t have a single functional website. The issue of transparency is now a challenge in the LGAs.

“You will see that a public officer, who is supposed to put a street light for the public to use, will now put it in his house,” Aliyu said.

According to him, the commission would continue to track constituency projects implementation. He also said the agency in collaboration with the EFCC would continue to push for a bill on unexplainable wealth to be passed into a law.

He added, “When you look at it, there is this issue of constituency projects that the National Assembly is doing, and ICPC has what we call a constituency project tracking initiative, whereby we’re following projects that are in critical areas: education, health sector, agriculture or empowerment, to see these things go down to the members of the public, the real downtrodden people.